The Police in Benue State on Wednesday arrested 46 suspects allegedly involved in the obstruction of the movement of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, during his visit to the state
Obi was prevented from proceeding to Yelwata community in Guma Local Government Area of the state by stick-welding youths who blocked his convoy and threw stones
The Yelwata community was where over a hundred residents were killed in attacks carried out by armed invaders in June last year and the presidential candidate was on his way to sympathise with them before the obstruction
State Commissioner of Police, Cletus Nwadiogbu, who paraded the arrested 46 suspects at the command headquarters in Makurdi disclosed that they were arrested through undercover operations and would be charged to court after investigations
“But our undercover operatives carried out operations, and we arrested 46 people identified as having participated in that incident
“We are continuing with the operation We will charge them to court; we won’t let it go. If we don’t do anything drastic now, the situation will be volatile in the future,” he said.
The police commissioner described the incident as “unfortunate and condemnable,” stressing that nobody had the right to stop the movement of any person in Nigeria
He said efforts were ongoing to apprehend other persons allegedly involved in the incident, adding that all those found culpable would be dealt with according to the law
Nwadiogbu further explained that Obi’s advance team had approached the command a day before the visit and informed the police that the former Anambra State governor would arrive the following day for a non-campaign visit which was not expected to attract a large crowd
He said the command consequently provided VIP security for Obi, deploying three complete teams of patrol policemen led by the Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations
The commissioner said he was, however, away from the scene when the incident occurred because he had gone to manage another crisis involving youths in Tarka
“Earlier that day, there was a crisis between the village of Tarka and Guma LGAs, so I had to leave to manage that crisis
“The youths of Tarka had barricaded Tarka-Gboko road in five places It was not until the afternoon that we convinced them to open the road. While I was there, I got the report about the Obi incident,” he said.
Nwadiogbu said the police could not immediately use force to disperse those obstructing Obi’s movement because such action could have escalated the situation
“It was unfortunate and condemnable Nobody has the right to halt the movement of anybody in Nigeria. We couldn’t do anything because the situation would have been more volatile. But our undercover operatives carried out operations. We arrested 46 people identified to have participated in that incident,” he said.
The CP added, “We will charge them to court We won’t let it go. If we don’t do anything drastic now, the situation will be volatile in the future. We would continue with our efforts to apprehend other suspects linked to the incident.”