Edo State branch of the National Conscience Party (NCP) has denounced what it called partisanship of the Army deployed to Otuo in Owan East Local Government Area of the state, saying that it poses grave danger to Nigeria’s cohesion.

In a statement Chairman of the party, Comrade Victor Edward Ogba and Secretary, Maxwell Amen Iyamu, condemned alleged indiscriminate and politically motivated arrests of 41 persons in the area with the tacit connivance of the security forces.

“We of the National Conscience Party are alarmed by the gory film footage of 41 young men said to have been arrested in Otuo in Edo North Senatorial District of Edo State, on Saturday April 2nd 2011 for alleged election offences.

The way the young men were heaped on top of each other, face down, suggested that they have been subjected to torture, and that many of them may have been severely wounded.

We cannot understand why they were asked to lie face down on top of each other; and even now, we express the hope that all of them are still alive”, the party said, adding, “from all indications, all those that were rounded up in different parts of the city were members of the Neighbourhood Watch who had those vests on.

We are oblivious of the fact that they were said to be armed, but we observed that the so called arms displayed in the film footage by the side of the sordid heap of flesh that the suspects have been turned into, was one cutlass, one axe and three or four double barrel cartridges.

We did not see any gun displayed in the TV film footage and cannot boast of being sure whether the so called displayed arms were recovered from the suspects. In this regard, we ask: Can 41 persons be in possession of one cutlass, one axe, and a few cartridges?”