By Eseoghene Emuke
The Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, says suspected political thugs who attacked the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole on Sunday in Benin must be arrested.
Omo-Agege, who condemned the attack Oshiomhole, stressed that political conflict should not be allowed to degenerate into attempt to take anyone’s life and, not to say a chairman of a ruling party.
Oshiomhole was said to have escaped death at his residence on Sunday in Benin, the Edo State capital, after suspected armed wielding political thugs attacked his home located at Okorotun area of Benin GRA.
The gunmen were said to have shot sporadically into the air. It was not clear if there were casualties during the melee.
But the Deputy President of the Senate, while reacting to the attack, described the incident as inhuman, callous and unacceptable.
Omo-Agege, in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Yomi Odunuga, urged the police to fish out the perpetrators of the attack to serve as deterrent to supporters of political violence in the country.
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According to him, political practice should not be allowed to degenerate to a situation where violence becomes the language of activism by both politicians and their supporters no matter how disgruntled such persons may be.
The Delta Central Senator said, “Such criminal attack remains utterly condemnable and illegal. Whatever their grievances, they should learn to explore dialogue rather than resort to violence.
“I call on the police to get to the root of the matter by prosecuting those involved in the act.
“It is my belief that the fine principles and ethos of democratic practice do have inbuilt mechanisms through which internal wrangling can be resolved without recourse to violence as it was the case in Edo State on Saturday.”
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He, however, called on political actors in the Edo State chapter of the APC to explore peaceful means in resolving the internal crisis in the party.
“I would like to call on the parties involved to explore those options that would strengthen the party as entrenched in the constitution of the APC as that is the best way to move the state and the nation to the Next Level in which all citizens are expected to reap the dividends of the trust they reposed in the government led by President Muhammadu Buhari”, he stated.
Omo-Agege also called on parents to warn their wards against political violence, adding that the attack negated democratic principles.
