PDP demands immediate, unconditional release of 52 arrested anti-kidnapping protesters in Edo

The Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has demanded the immediate and unconditional release of 52 suspected anti-kidnapping protesters allegedly arrested on the order of the state government.

The party, in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Dan Osa-Ogbegie, and made available to newsmen on Monday in Benin City, said the arrested suspects were mainly students of Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma.

He said the continued detention of the suspects was oppressive, unlawful, and a blatant abuse of power.

He warned that Edo State is fast acquiring a reputation for punishing victims while protecting perpetrators.

“The party also condemned reports that a court had remanded 52 students for protesting insecurity, as widely reported, describing the development as a dangerous descent into repression.

“It warned that a government that criminalises protest while kidnappers operate with impunity has lost all moral authority to govern.

“The PDP declared that it would not be silent while Edo citizens were kidnapped, brutalised, and silenced under APC rule. It stressed that security was the first duty of government and that any administration that failed in this duty and responded with force against its own people would be judged harshly by history.

“The party called on the Edo State Government and the Edo State Command of the Nigeria Police Force to immediately reverse what it described as a shameful and dangerous course by releasing all detainees, securing Ekpoma, arresting the kidnappers, and restoring public confidence through lawful, transparent, and people-centred action,” he said.

The party, however, described Governor Monday Okpebholo’s handling of insecurity in Ekpoma and its environs as a combination of alleged incompetence, indifference, and authoritarian reflexes.

According to him, Ekpoma had been abandoned to kidnappers and violent criminals, with residents living in fear as attacks escalated unchecked. The party accused the Okpebholo administration of having no credible security strategy.

“Instead of confronting criminal gangs through intelligence-led policing and coordinated action, the APC government has chosen the easier but disgraceful option of unleashing state power against unarmed, peaceful citizens.

“The arrest and continued detention of peaceful protesters, many of them students, exposed what it called the ‘true character’ of the APC government in Edo State, brutal towards citizens, timid before criminals, and hostile to democratic expression,” he added.

While opposing kidnapping and killings in all forms, the party demanded the immediate dismantling of criminal networks operating freely across Ekpoma and neighbouring communities.

He opined that the persistence of the crimes was a direct indictment of the APC government’s failure to govern.

Ogbegie said the party, however, expressed full solidarity with the people of Ekpoma, particularly the students and residents who organised a peaceful protest against insecurity.

He described the protest as lawful, courageous, and constitutionally protected, adding that only a government frightened by accountability would criminalise such civic action.

The statement further criticised the Okpebholo administration for dismantling or neglecting the command-and-control security framework inherited from the administration of Godwin Obaseki.

It noted that Edo State already had security structures in place and that what was missing under the APC was leadership, coordination, seriousness, and political will.

The party, while condoling with the families of all victims of kidnapping and violence, posited that condolences without responsibility were empty.

It demanded that the governor should personally visit the affected families, confront the human cost of his administration’s failure, and take responsibility for restoring security rather than governing from a distance.

PDP demands immediate, unconditional release of 52 arrested anti-kidnapping protesters in Edo