CMD Kidnap: We are Trailing Abductors, Says Edo CP
The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has met with Edo State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Danmallam Mohammed, yesterday said his men are on the trail of the criminals who kidnapped the Chief Medical Director of Irrua Specialist Hospital, Prof. Sylvanus Okigbeni, which led to the death of two policemen.
Meanwhile, the abductors were yet to make contact with the family since the incident happened last Monday.
Mohammed, who stated this after a closed-door security meeting, confirmed that two gallant policemen were lost during the kidnap of the CMD which took place at Ramat Park aggrieved members of the party who contested in the 2019 All Progressives Congress (APC) primary elections, as part of on his way to Benin Airport last Monday for a meeting in Abuja.
“The kidnap of CMD is quite unfortunate and sad. We lost two of our gallant police officers in the incident but there were no civilian casualties. I am assuring members of the public that we are on the trail of the kidnappers, and by God’s grace, we shall arrest them.“Investigation is already ongoing, but the strategy will not be revealed for security reasons. However, we assure Edo people that the CMD will be rescued soon. We are on top of our game and we will surely rescue him as we have been doing a lot of work on our major highways in the state,” he said. the recommendations by the Theophilus Okoh-led committee set up to reconcile aggrieved members of the party in the state.
Also following a minor disagreement between the Edo Universal Basic Education Board and executives of the state chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) over the September 2 resumption date for primary schools in the state, among other issues, Obaseki has met with the teachers to resolve the issues.
The governor alongside other leaders of the APC in the state have apologised to the aggrieved members over the unfair treatment meted to them when they indicated interest to contest in the 2019 APC primaries in the state. He thanked them for keeping faith with the party despite their disaffection which showed they are true loyalists of the party, adding, that “after reading the Okoh-led Committee Report and watching the videos, I really appreciate you all. We are truly sorry for what you may have gone through during the 2019 primary elections. This meeting is the starting point for reconciliation of aggrieved members of the party.”
The meeting, according to Obaseki, was part of the reconciliation process the party has adopted to resolve the issues in the party. “Almost 20 court cases arose from those who were deprived of the opportunity to contest fairly for the ticket of the party,” he said.
Obaseki explained that the meeting became necessary to bring all aggrieved members of APC together to resolve all the issues causing the crisis.
“To build trust, confidence and demonstrate that we truly want to reconcile the aggrieved members of our party, within a week of receiving the Okoh-led committee report, we called for this meeting to talk to our aggrieved members.”
Meanwhile, following a minor disagreement between the Edo Universal Basic Education Board and executives of the state chapter of the NUT over September 2nd resumption date for primary schools in the state, among other issues, Obaseki has met with the NUT executives in Government House, Benin City, the state capital.
The NUT executives had directed the union members not to resume for the first term of the 2019/2020 academic session on September 2, 2019, citing disagreement with Edo SUBEB.
Speaking at the end of the meeting, the Chairman of NUT, Edo State Chapter, Okhueleigbe Pius, said, “the meeting was fruitful. The governor has done a lot on most of the matters and by Thursday, August 29, 2019, we are going to call for an enlarged meeting of members of our union on the outcome of the meeting where we will finally take other decisions whether schools will resume or not.”
The state government has embarked on a revamp of the basic education sector, with the training of 7,000 teachers to deploy digital tools for instruction in classrooms.
With the training of teachers, the state government has also embarked on a programme to revamp infrastructure in primary schools, with the reconstruction of about 520 primary schools across the state.