Edo Assembly Invasion: Court remands arrested thugs over illegal possession of firearms …as Obaseki is accused of bribery to secure freedom of the thugs

A Benin City High Court (Vacation Court One), Edo State, on Monday remanded seven thugs nabbed by the Police with illegal firearms during the invasion of the Edo State House of Assembly complex led by Governor Godwin Obaseki and his deputy, Mr. Philip Shaibu. The thugs identified as Festus Agbonrenren (25 years), Odion Osayande (23 years), Ogbeiwe Wilfred (52 years), Morgan Uwaigboe (47 years), Osayomore Salami (25 years), Ifeoluwa Oladele (36 years), and Iginobaro Collins (26 years) were arrested on August 6 within the premises of the Edo Assembly complex with five double-barrel guns, two single barrel guns, and 10 live cartridges. According to several Police sources, they have confessed to being mobilized by the governor’s aides, Mr. Kabiru Adjoto and Mr. OsaigbovoIyoha, to deny entry to the Assembly Complex to elected members of the Edo Assembly opposed to Governor Obaseki with violence.
They provided cover for other thugs who removed the roof of the Edo Assembly complex, vandalized its chambers, and tipped heaps of sand at its entrance in violent chaos allegedly supervised by the governor, and his deputy, a development that received widespread condemnation from rights groups and residents of the state.
The presiding judge, Hon. Justice Efe Ikponmwonba, ordered that accused should be remanded in the police custody pending the determination of the case on August 25. However, in a decision said to be indicative of the sensitivity of the case and the highly-funded plot by Governor Obaseki to prevent the thugs from standing prosecution, the judge asked that the suspects not be brought to court at the next sitting but kept in the police custody where developments on the case will be relayed to them by their legal representatives. Several prominent Civil Society Organizations have called