Edo Polls 2020: Presidency responds to viral arrest video

The Presidency has dismissed as a “patched work of mischief,” a viral video where the former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, was heard telling the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof.

Ibrahim Gambari, about “arrests” concerning the Edo state governorship election. This followed the allegations by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that the presidential villa meeting may be a prelude to the arrest of unnamed opposition politicians and critics in the state before the September 19 election.

A statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, on Tuesday night, said that Gambari and Oshiomhole will never work against their values of protecting Nigerians.

It also stated that President Muhammadu Buhari’s position that election must reflect the will of the people. The statement read: “It is very important to strongly dispel misguided messaging amongst commentators, rights activists, advocates and journalists who have been reacting to a trending short video clip, alleging that the Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Gambari and Chief Adams Oshiomhole, the former All Progressives Congress, APC chairman had hatched a plan to arrest opposition individuals ahead of the September, the election in Edo State.

“Firstly, it is important to state that the video was an ingenious patchwork of mischief, extracted from an innocent conversation focused on the emerging incidents of violence in the run-up to the election.”