Many persons were reportedly injured when armed thugs opened fire on the convoy of Senator Monday Okpebholo, the All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candidate, and Phillip Shaibu, the former Deputy Governor of Edo State, at Benin Airport on Thursday.
The incident occurred at 2 p.m., as the two arrived from Abuja on a leased private jet.
According to eyewitnesses, the unknown gunmen, riding in a Toyota Sienna bus, positioned themselves at the airport’s exit gate and opened fire on the convoy transporting Okpebholo and Shaibu.
In response, security details who were attached to the APC candidate, and Shaibu reacted with gunshots.
According to reports, shops in the neighbourhood were forced to close quickly, and cars abandoned their vehicles to avoid the crossfire.
The incident was brought under control by the Nigeria Police mobile squad’s rapid intervention, which fired bullets, forcing the attackers to flee in their car.
The occurrence follows a Federal Court verdict in Abuja that reinstated Shaibu as Deputy Governor and directed the Inspector General of Police to restore his security details.
The court’s decision effectively overturned Shaibu’s impeachment by the Edo State House of Assembly.
The Edo State Security Network seized the office of the state’s deputy governor, Marvellous Omobayo, on Osadebey Avenue in the Government Reservation Area.
AllNews.ng had reported that a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has approved the reinstatement of the impeached Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu back to office.
The court, in the judgment that was delivered by Justice James Omotosho, declared his purported impeachment by the Edo State House of Assembly as illegal, unconstitutional, null, and void.
The court in its verdict held that the said impeachment was in gross violation of the provisions of both sections 188 and 35 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
Aside from restoring him to office as the Deputy Governor, the court held that all his salaries, allowances, and benefits should be paid to him from April 8, when he was illegally impeached, until the expiration of his tenure.
It further issued an order of perpetual injunction restraining Governor Godwin Obaseki and the Edo State House of Assembly from stopping Shaibu from performing the functions of his office.
It also ordered the Inspector General of Police to immediately restore all his security details.
The court maintained that the reason the Edo Assembly gave for impeaching the plaintiff was lame and smacked of an orchestrated political vendetta.
