Gov Okpebholo’s CSO Ordered My 90-Year-Old Father’s Abduction — Edo South ADC Sen Candidate

The Edo South senatorial candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Matthew Iduoriyekemwen, has alleged that the Chief Security Officer (CSO) to Governor Monday Okpebholo led an operation to arrest his 90-year-old father, Pa Joseph Iduoriyekemwen, from his residence in the early hours of Tuesday.

Iduoriyekemwen said his wife woke him at about 3:20 am after receiving a call from his father’s residence that people had surrounded the house.

“At about 3:20 am this morning, my wife woke me up and said there was a phone call from my father’s house that people have surrounded my father’s house. In fact, the initial thought was that maybe they were kidnappers.”

He said he immediately contacted the woman living with his parents and asked her not to open the door until he could get there. However, she told him the men were already inside with his father.

Iduoriyekemwen said he asked to speak with his father but was told he could not. One of the men eventually took the phone and identified himself as a member of the Edo State Security Network.

According to him, the operative said they were downstairs and had been instructed from Government House to arrest his father.

Iduoriyekemwen said he questioned why his 90-year-old father would be arrested at 3 am instead of being invited if his attention was needed.

“I said, ‘At 3:00 AM, is he a criminal? My dad is 90 years old. Even if you need his attention, what is the proper thing to do? Is it not to invite him?’”

He said the operative refused to engage further with him and ended the call.

Iduoriyekemwen said his mother then wanted to accompany the operatives but was prevented from doing so, while the woman living with his parents was instructed to go with them.

The ADC candidate said the family was initially told that his father was being taken to the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID), before being informed that he was being taken to Abuja.

“Where are you taking him to?’ They said initially they were going to State CID. Later they said they were going to Abuja. So that’s how I came downstairs and I went to State CID, and saw no sign of them. Not too long ago, I now heard that they were taking him to Government House, that the CSO Government House led the arrest.”

Iduoriyekemwen said the family was later told that the arrest was linked to a land dispute involving a proposed village market in his community, where his father is a leader.

“They are now saying that the reason for his arrest is because of some land issues on where they are building a village market in my village, that my father is the leader. That they wanted to stop building the market. I said even if that is the situation, to go and arrest him in the night.”

He also alleged that his family had received threats during the political campaign, including references to the use of firearms.

“But the thing is that my dad is not their target. How many communities do they have issues in Edo State? But they’ve been issuing different kinds of subtle threats and different kinds of threats in their campaign, calling us cultists. They talked about using AK-47, using everything and all that. But we haven’t joined them yet,” he said.

Iduoriyekemwen further alleged that the operatives broke into his father’s compound and fired shots during the operation.

“They said at 3:00 AM they broke his gate and they were shooting sporadically in the street. They drove to my dad’s house, they said they came in a bus, they came in with a gun truck. That has not happened in my father’s area since I grew up till today. The CSO Government House is the one who led the operation.”

The family has demanded answers over the circumstances surrounding the arrest, including the whereabouts of the elderly man and the authority under which he was taken away.

“My father is 90 years old. His family deserves to know where he is, why he was taken away and under whose lawful authority. Whatever our political differences may be, when did a 90-year-old father become a political battlefield? Politics should be a contest of ideas, competence and service to the people—not an ordeal that leaves an elderly parent and his family in fear and uncertainty,” he stated.