Delta Speaker Orders His Thugs, Police To Beat Up Opponent

The last may not have been heard about the last Saturday’s controversial Peoples Democracy Party (PDP) House of Assembly primaries in Delta State as the State House of Assembly speaker; Mr. Peter Onwunsaya, reportedly ordered his thugs and men of the Nigeria Police to beat up his opponent for the same seat.
 Ogbueshi Ifeanyi GabrielSahara ReportersNarrating his ordeal in the hands of the speaker’s thugs and the police, Delta State House of Assembly hopeful under the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Oshimili South Constituency, the same constituency as the speaker, Ogbueshi Ifeanyi Gabriel, stated that the Speaker on that fateful day of the primaries at the indoor sports hall of Stephen Keshi stadium, Asaba, ordered stern-looking boys believed to be his thugs and the police to beat him up mercilessly.
 
“I am an aspirant for the Assembly primaries, and as at Friday 28, the local government PDP chairman, Mr. Maduemzie, met with us and said that the aspirants are expected to be at the venue on Saturday by 8:30am and I came to the venue at about 8:45am when the Divisional Police Officer of ‘B’ Division Asaba, refused to allow me into the premise and ask me to stay by the side.

Ogbueshi Ifeanyi GabrielSahara Reporters“So I stood at the gate. 30 minutes after, the Speaker who is also an aspirant, Hon Peter Onwusanya, and the chairman of the council, Hon. Chuks Obusom, came and the police allowed them in and the some of the policemen at the gate went in went the speaker. After about 20 minutes they came out with some stern-looking youths and I confronted the DPO why [they were] allowing other aspirants in, are they [more] special than I? And he told me that there [was] an order from above to arrest me.

“Shortly after I questioned the order from above, before I could know what was happening, the DPO and his men and the thugs started beating me, tore my cloths, teargassed me and the Speaker asked the police to send me away and then, I quickly rushed to the Department of Security Service (DSS) office. From there I moved to the police headquarters to complain to the Commissioner of Police. On my coming out from the Police Headquarters, I collapsed, and later found myself in Okwe general hospital.  I am calling for the cancellation of the Saturday’s exercise and I am also calling on the police authority to single out the police men that beat me up.
 Ogbueshi Ifeanyi GabrielSahara Reporters“As I was being beaten, I overheard the Speaker saying to the thugs and the police that they should not allow me to participate in the primaries and make sure I am beaten up to the point of taking me to the hospital. Even one of the thugs and a policeman threatened me that if I love my life I should leave or my lifeless body will be found in the gutter,” the aspirant narrated.
 
Gabriel condemned the usage of security agents and thugs by the speaker, noting that he never participated in the PDP primaries exercise and has submitted his petition to the panel committee.

Speaker Onwunsaya rebuffed calls and messages sent to his mobile line. One of his aides, who pleaded that his should not be mentioned, exonerated his boss of any wrong-doing, insisting that what happened to the aspirant was solely carried out by the police and not the speaker's boys.

Meanwhile, as the controversy continues to trail last Saturday's PDP primaries in Delta state, it was learned that on Tuesday night, at the Delta State governor's lodge in Abuja, state governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan, Patani constituency representative, Nicholas Mutu, former state PDP chairman, Peter Nwaoboshi and the acting PDP chairman, Edwin Uzor, Director of Protocol (DOP), held hostage the panel chairman and his members in charge of the House of Assembly primaries.

SaharaReporters gathered that the panel was offered several million Naira and dollars to falsify the results in favour of Uduaghan's candidates, but the panel vehemently refused to succumb.