TELL Magazine

A former member of the House of Representatives, Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayinma, popularly called EJ, and chieftain of the All-Progressives Congress, APC in Edo State, has narrated his bitter encounter with some alleged political thugs who stormed a political meeting at his behest and beat up participants, including the party’s woman leader in Ikpoba Okha local government area and her husband, who have now been hospitalized.

Agbonayinma said mayhem was unleashed on leaders and members of the APC in the local government who had assembled to install him as the ‘Apex Leader’ of the party in the area.

Recounting his experience to journalists on Saturday, the federal lawmaker said the invaders abruptly interrupted the meeting, beating up attendees, vandalising vehicles and chairs, as well as making away with drinks and other items from the venue off Dumez Road in Benin City.

According to him, “The APC local government chairman, Hon. Sunny Ogbewe, called me that the leadership of Ikpoba-Okha was coming to meet with me to rub minds on the way forward for the party in the local government area. However, it was a sad story. My friend, my brothers, the one I call my son, Osarobo Idahosa, and Cromwell Osaigbovo, led many others, came here, destroyed, beat up the woman leader and her husband. Both of them are in the hospital as I speak. They also vandalised vehicles, broke chairs and tables, and carted away drinks. This is not how politics should be played. Going violent and beating up elderly persons?”

Explaining further, Agbonayinma said “For some time, the people of the local government have been appealing to me to come and take leadership position. But I am not interested because of what I have gone through. I lost my son and am still going through it because of the trauma. They came here to appeal to me to be the apex leader of Ikpoba-Okha”.

Recall that Agbonayinma’s 23-year-old son, Osazuwa Michael Agbonayinma, United States of America-based singer popularly known as Zuwa, was on Sunday January 10, 2024, shot dead by a gunman in Houston, Texas, which made him withdraw from the state’s governorship race Thursday February 15 ahead of the APC primary election.

Addressing the meeting when order was restored, and security was beefed-up, a tough-talking Agbonayinma vowed that those who carried out the attack “will pay dearly for all they have destroyed”, including the theft of an electricity generator brought to the venue to power equipment for the meeting. He said it was a hard decision for him to accept the honour members of the party in the local government bestowed on him to be their “Apex Leader”.

He however insisted that “This opportunity given to me, I will not take it for granted. I will not disappoint you”. While promising to always consult before taking decisions, he urged party members to respect their leaders at all levels.

In their various comments, participants at the meeting condemned the attackers and called for severe sanctions to serve as deterrent to others who might take such action in future.