With the controversy generated over the discovery of 20 mummified bodies in Benin still on, Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki has called for calm and has given the police seven days to carry out a comprehensive investigation to unravel the ownership and purpose of the facility.
Obaseki stated this at a joint press conference with the police at the headquarters of the Edo State Police Command on Friday.
Represented by his Special Adviser on Media Projects, Crusoe Osagie, Obaseki said the public would continuously be briefed on the progress of the investigations.
He said: “We want to call for calm from the public. We don’t want to preempt the outcome of police investigation but the police are actively doing their investigations. There are a lot of speculations going around; some people suspect that the place is a quack morgue or a place for ritual purposes.
“People have been apprehended and they are undergoing questioning. Some people are still being looked for. The governor has given seven days for them to come back to us with the details of what they have found out. Was it just a morgue or is there any ritual involved? No conclusions have been reached yet so police will be allowed to do its work.
“We are going to continuously brief the public and we are also taking measures through the Ministry of Health to ensure that there is no public health crisis in that area. Edo is safe and there is no evidence yet that anything ritual is involved until the police are through with their investigation.”
On his part, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, SCID, Olawore Oluwole who is handling the investigation assured that the police would do a thorough job.
He said, “Based on credible intelligence, a bungalow located at Asoro was found to have some dried bodies and some items like generator, gas cylinder, oxygen cylinder. Five suspects were arrested and they are Chimaobi Okoewu and Samuel Okoh both from Ebonyi State, Gideon Sunday from Akwa-Ibom, Victor Obeche from Anambra and Yusuf Lawal from Katsina State.
“So far, we are still looking for one of the suspects and efforts are being made to get him and his name is Otu Chukwu who is alleged to be the owner of the bungalow. I want to appeal to all members of the public to remain calm as the command is assuring that everything will be done to ensure that all hidden facts are unraveled,” he added.
Gov candidate: Appeal court keeps Delta PDP waiting
The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Friday reserved judgment in a suit filed by Sheriff Oborevwori, the PDP governorship candidate in Delta challenging a lower court judgment disqualifying him.
During the PDP governorship primary in May, Oborevwori, speaker of the Delta house of assembly, polled 590 votes to beat his closest rival, David Edevbie, a former Commissioner for Finance who polled 113 votes.
Aggrieved by the outcome of the primary, Edevbie filed a suit alleging discrepancies in Oborevwori’s certificates.
He also contended that the PDP violated its constitution in the process of the state congress, which produced Oborevwori.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/795/2022, the plaintiff prayed the court to restrain the PDP from forwarding Oborevwori’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
He also prayed the court to restrain INEC from receiving or recognising Oborevwori as duly nominate flagbearer.
He further sought a restraining order barring Oborevwori from parading himself as the governorship candidate of the party in the forthcoming election.
However, delivering a ruling on July 7, Taiwo Taiwo, trial judge of a Federal High Court in Abuja held that the suit was meritorious and accordingly granted the reliefs of the plaintiff against Oborevwori.
Dissatisfied, Oborevwori and the PDP filed two separate appeals CA/ABJ/CV/778/22 and CA/ABJ/CV/779/22, praying the court to void the judgment of the trial court.
At the court session on Friday, parties in the suit adopted their brief of arguments and a three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice Peter Ige reserved judgment.
Ige said a date for judgment would be communicated to all parties.
