Gov. Okpebholo’s Restriction Order Threat To Obi’s Life – Abaribe

Leader of the Southeast Caucus in the Senate, Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, has said that Governor Monday Okpebholo’s restriction order on Mr Peter Obi, was a threat to Obi’s life.

THE WHISTLER had reported last week, how the Edo State Governor told Obi to stay away from the state because his safety was not guaranteed if he visited the state.

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, had planned to visit Benin City, the Edo State capital on the invitation of his supporters when the governor told him to stay away.

But Senator Abaribe, in a statement on Wednesday, wondered how Okpebholo, who was a senator before he was elected as governor, could place such a dangerous order on a fellow Nigerian.

The senator described Okpebholo’s order as a direct challenge to Nigeria’s unity and a brazen attack on the country’s constitution.

Abaribe said the Okpebholo lacked the constitutional powers to abridge any citizen’s right, stressing that he unconscionably triggered a divisive trajectory that could hurt Nigeria’s democratic advancement.

He reminded the Edo governor that Nigeria remained a constitutional democracy where the rights of everyone, particularly citizens of Nigeria are guaranteed.

“It is therefore disheartening that leaders who are supposedly the custodians of the letters and spirit of the Nigerian constitution, would decide to willfully be at the driving seat of its denigration in the name of politics.

“Nigeria is governed by rules and her leaders in all sub national governments subscribed to the adherence and respect to the rule of law as enshrined in the constitution.

“So one wonders where the Edo State governor derives his powers to bar a Nigerian citizen from visiting his state, unless such a person obtains permission from him, otherwise the person’s security will not be guaranteed.

“It is very unfortunate that it seems our dear country is fast descending to lawlessness with this mindset and I pray that nothing happens to Mr Peter Obi.

“Governor Okpebholo, who was a senator and as such a lawmaker, needs to be reminded that Nigeria belongs to all of us and that he is dead wrong to claim authority that he does not have.

“The beauty of democracy is made manifest in the expression of freedom to hold divergent views and the freedom of movement of every Nigerian in any part of the Nigerian federation, Edo State inclusive,” Abaribe said.

Gov. Okpebholo’s Restriction Order Threat To Obi’s Life – Abaribe is first published on The Whistler Newspaper