Kenneth Okonkwo, a member of the African Democratic Congress’s (ADC) National Working Committee, has described the recent attack on the party’s leaders in Benin City “genocide against political opponents” and an attempt at assassination.
Okonkwo said that the attackers were connected to government officials in an interview with ARISE NEWS.
“This was an assassination attempt by people I can describe as either the governmental people or their agents. This is genocide against political opponents,” he said.
Okonkwo also alleged that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was working to weaken opposition parties in a bid to impose a one-party system in the country.
“This government has started trying to do genocide against political parties. You must have heard when they said that it’s like we are tilting towards a one-party state, and this was orchestrated by the APC to ensure that there is no other party,” he said.
“Having failed to ‘genocide’ all the political parties, because ADC just emerged, their only choice now is to wipe out the opposition leaders. It’s a premeditated attack channeled towards intimidating the opponents.”
Speaking on whether the incident claimed any lives, the ADC chieftain said there were injuries but no confirmed fatalities as of the time of his interview.
“We cannot say that they killed anybody, but other people were injured. We are yet to know about the casualty figures because it happened today,” he said.
John Odigie-Oyegun, Oserheimen Osunbor, and Peter Obi were among the three former governors who were at the location when the attack took place, according to Okonkwo.
“One thing is very, very telling; three former governors were in that venue… and the federal government, with the state government, could not provide enough security for their safety,” he said.
He also claimed that the absence of security personnel made the attack possible.
“They withdrew the security of John Oyegun and all the other people. If security were there, they wouldn’t be attacked. So there was no security, basically. And that’s why I said it’s genocide,” Okonkwo added.
He claims that the event has been officially reported to the authorities, adding that Odigie-Oyegun told him that the commissioner of police paid him a visit following the occurrence.
“They reported the incident. Oyegun told me that the commissioner of police was magnanimous enough to visit him, but what we do not know is what happens after then,” he said.
