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The Edo State Presidential, National Assembly and State House of Assembly Campaign Council has warned politicians against manufacturing attacks or converting private disputes into political incidents in an attempt to attract public sympathy ahead of the 2027 elections.
The council said anyone alleging an attack by members or supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) should be prepared to provide evidence and allow the police and other relevant security agencies to establish what actually happened.
In a statement signed by its director of media, John Mayaki, the council said the APC should not be dragged into every arrest, quarrel, community dispute or personal disagreement merely because an election was approaching.
“Let nobody manufacture an attack and then hang it on the APC simply because election season has arrived.
“That trick will not sell. It will not fly.
“Nobody is after anybody. The APC has enough political work on its hands and has no business inheriting every private quarrel, community dispute or personal disagreement in Edo State,” the council said, advising politicians with personal grievances to resolve them through appropriate channels instead of automatically attributing their problems to the ruling party.
“If you have a score to settle with somebody, settle it with the person. If you have a dispute, take it to the appropriate authorities.
“But do not drag the ruling party into your private troubles simply because you think shouting ‘APC’ will attract sympathy,” the statement said.
In apparent reference to alleged attack by an opposition party, the council said allegations involving firearms were too serious to be reduced to political theatre, stressing that anyone displaying spent cartridges as evidence of an attack must be prepared to establish their origin before investigators.
“If anybody thinks he can fire a catapult somewhere, create a scene and then turn around to blame the APC for his misfortune, that person has already failed.
“If anybody thinks he can pick up spent cartridges from the ground, display them before cameras and present them as proof that ‘APC boys’ opened fire, then such a person should be ready to establish that claim before the police and the appropriate investigative authorities.
“Evidence is evidence. Drama is not evidence,” the campaign council added and said the appropriate response to allegations of shootings was a proper investigation capable of establishing where any recovered ammunition came from, who fired it and the circumstances surrounding the incident.
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“Every arrest is not political. Every quarrel is not political. Every gunshot is not automatically an APC attack. Every disagreement is not a conspiracy by the ruling party.
“If you allege an attack, prove it. If you allege gunfire, let investigators establish where the ammunition came from, who fired it and under what circumstances,” the statement said.
The council also stressed that Governor Monday Okpebholo has zero tolerance for criminality and any activity capable of making Edo State unsafe.
“The governor of Edo State has zero tolerance for criminality and for acts capable of undermining the peace and security of the state. He will not condone such conduct from anybody, irrespective of political affiliation.
“Government will take measures commensurate with whatever offence is established, including cases where people deliberately fabricate or stage attacks that did not occur in order to create fear, mislead the public or gain political sympathy.
“No one should mistake political season for a licence to manufacture insecurity. Where an allegation amounts to a criminal offence, the law should take its course,” the APC Campaign Council further stated, cautioning that criminal allegations should not be converted into instruments of political mobilisation or sympathy.
“Political sympathy cannot be built on manufactured victimhood, and criminal allegations should not be reduced to campaign propaganda.
“People should stop converting every personal misfortune into an APC story simply because an election is approaching.
“The electorate is watching, the police can investigate, and facts have a stubborn way of exposing fiction,” the statement said.
