Saturday, April 30, 2016 was another tensed day in Edo State when the deputy governor, Dr. Pius Odubu, visited delegates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Auchi, Etsako West Local Government Area. While the deputy governor was inside the party’s secretariat addressing party leaders, hoodlums allegedly unleashed mayhem outside. Seven persons, including a policeman and an operative of the Department of State Security, were said to have been injured during the incident.

The Tuesday change of leadership in the Edo State House of Assembly has disrupted the political equation of the state, no doubt about that. While Edo North produced the governor in the person of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Edo South has the deputy governor and Hon. (Mrs) Elizabeth Atvie, just elected Speaker. Edo Central lost it after the former Speaker, Rt. Hon. Tiger Victor Edoror, was impeached and how to appease the Esan now is the headache of the leadership of the APC in the state. But the gladiators in the state House of Assembly who plotted the sack of Edoror are not bothered about that.

OBVIOUSLY, founder of the non-operational Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta, MEND, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, neither foresaw nor prepared for his travails in the past few months, which have seen him move underground, despite the fact that he was used to hard-hitting existence as an ex-militant leader.

The provocative invasion on April 25, of Ukpabi,Nimbo community in Enugu State by over 500 dare-devil Fulani herdsmen culminating in the slaughter of 46 natives, was an incident which would have made most Leaders lose their head, belching blood following instigating comments that could engender reprisal attacks which could snowball into ethnic and tribal uprising across the nation.

Whoever caused that violence, I condemned it totally. we don’t need violence in the state. What creates such tension is when politicians are desperate, giving money to thugs to go and cause mayhem. If you look at my campaign, each time I travel to a place you will never see thugs around me, I am a peaceful person and that is why everybody around me wears white, meaning purity. You cannot see my people shooting gun to scare any body and that I believe created the problem in Auchi. But both the governor and his deputy must not drag Edo people into their problem.

At the beginning of the week when they should have been in deep mourning, members of the Edo State House of Assembly surfaced to unseat their speaker, Victor Tiger Edoror. Remarkably, Tiger Edoror was replaced by Mrs. Elizabeth Atvie, who became the first woman in the annals of the state legislature to serve as speaker. Of course, Tiger did not lay back and watch a woman take over his seat of influence.

This penultimate Mondayat the beginning of the week when bankers sit down to map out strategies for strengthening positions and playing the money market, Mr. Udom Emmanuel was in a totally different world. Just over two years ago, Emmanuel, left his top position as an executive director in one of the country’s leading banks, Zenith Bank to meddle into the murky waters of politics with his appointment as the Secretary to the Akwa Ibom State government. His lift to the zenith of the state’s politics was rapid thereafter as within months he became governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP for the 2015 election.

Chief Francis Inegbeniki, is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Edo State and former senatorial candidate of the party in Edo central district.
In this interview with Vanguard, Inegbeniki speaks on why President Muhammadu Buhari is enjoying the support of Nigerians and other national issues.

Famed as the Peoples General, Olorogun Great Ogboru, serially AD, DPP, Labour Party governorship candidate in Delta State is set to leave his latest political haven. However, his exit strategy, this time, is clouded by much controversy.

Dr. Henry Archibong represents Itu/Ibiono Federal Constituency. In this interview, he comments on many contentious national and state issues; the deplorable state of the Calabar-Itu Federal Road, the debt profile of Akwa-Ibom State, the APC-led administration and its preparedness for leadership and of course, the vexed issue of the 2016 Appropriation Bill.