A lawyer and member of the National Working Committee of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Kenneth Okonkwo, has described the recent assault on the party’s leaders in Benin City as an assassination attempt and “genocide against political opponents”.
Speaking on ARISE NEWS on Tuesday, Okonkwo alleged that individuals connected to government authorities were responsible for the incident.
“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 further accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of attempting to weaken opposition parties in pursuit of a one-party system.
“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 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.”
On casualties, Okonkwo said there were injuries but no confirmed deaths at 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.
He revealed that three former governors were present during the attack, including John Odigie-Oyegun, Oserheimen Osunbor and Peter Obi.
“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.
Okonkwo also alleged that the absence of security personnel enabled the attack.
“They withdrew the security of John Oyegun and all the other people. If the security was there, they wouldn’t be attacked. So there was no security, basically. And that’s why I said it’s genocide,” Okonkwo added.
According to him, the matter has been officially reported. He said Odigie-Oyegun informed him that the Commissioner of Police paid him a visit after the incident.
“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.