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The attack on the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Mr. Peter Obi, and other African Democratic Congress (ADC) chieftains in Benin City, Edo State, by gunmen is reprehensible and condemnable. It underscored the level of political intolerance as Nigeria approaches the 2027 election season. The attack occurred after Obi and two former Edo State governors, John Odigie-Oyegun and Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor, among others, received former LP governorship candidate in Edo State in 2024 and ex-president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olumide Akpata, into the ADC.
There was no reported death after the attack, but some people reportedly sustained injuries. Besides, there were bullet holes on the gate of Odigie-Oyegun as well as damaged vehicles and vandalized furniture at the secretariat of the ADC in Edo. This is ominous.
Well-meaning Nigerians and groups have rightly condemned this incident. In a strongly-worded message, former Nigerian Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, said, “Nigeria is entering a perilous phase in which opposition voices are not only harassed through state institutions but are now being physically targeted. The ruling APC appears to have escalated its intolerance from bureaucratic suppression to open aggression.”
We recall that, in July 2025, Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State warned Obi not to visit the state without informing him “because his security will not be guaranteed. Whatever happens to him in Edo State, he will take it.” Obi visited penultimate Tuesday and he was attacked. The Edo State government has debunked any link to the attack. It rather blamed it on the internal crisis within the ADC.
Edo should not give itself out as a state prone to political violence and intolerance. Ahead of the governorship election in September 2020, the split between former Governor Adams Oshiomhole and his successor, Godwin Obaseki, led to some violence in the state. In one instance, there was a clash between the supporters of the APC and the PDP when Obaseki and some leaders of the PDP visited the palace of the Oba of Benin in July 2020. Many persons sustained injuries. Vehicles were destroyed.
Just last month, the APC Chairman in Edo, Jarrett Tenebe, allegedly threatened a woman, Blessing Agho, with death for criticizing Okpebholo. Politicians should stop making incendiary comments that can heat up the polity.
Elsewhere, it is the same sad story of political intolerance. Last January, some LP members had gathered to announce their defection to the ADC in Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State. Out of the blue, some hoodlums invaded the venue of the event and started assaulting party officials and members who fled for their lives. The thugs were said to have also vandalized party property and injured many people.
In Kaduna, the ADC convened an inaugural transition committee meeting on August 30, 2025. The meeting was to harmonise coalition members from the All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), and LP under the banner of the ADC. The inauguration descended into violence when armed thugs struck, disrupting proceedings. They damaged property and inflicted injuries on a number of people. A former governor of the state, Nasir el-Rufai, alleged police complicity. According to him, senior police officers, including an Assistant Commissioner of Police, were there but did nothing while the hoodlums terrorized people. Nobody was arrested or prosecuted.
No arrest was also made in Ekiti when thugs set ablaze the ADC secretariat in Ado-Ekiti in October 2025. The ADC members had gathered to inaugurate ward, council and state executives when the hoodlums attacked the venue, shot into the air, destroyed some valuables and forced members and journalists to flee.
We call on the police and other security agencies to properly investigate these incidents and apprehend those behind them. They should be brought to justice.
Political parties must rein in their supporters. Let them eschew violence as we approach the 2027 election cycle. Our democracy must blossom through tolerance of opposing views. If ordinary defection could attract this level of violence, it would be worse in 2027.
Politics is not a do-or-die affair. Let politicians play the game according to the rules. They should also be guided by history. In the First Republic, this type of violence and political intolerance led to the first military coup in Nigeria in 1966. The 1983 coup that ousted the civilian government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari also took place because of the eccentric, corrupt and selfish behaviour of Nigerian politicians.
We condemn political intolerance at any level and urge politicians not to set the country on fire or truncate the country’s democracy. President Bola Tinubu should save Nigeria’s democracy from total collapse by calling all political gladiators and troublemakers to order.
