EDO WILL NOT BURN: EKPOMA UNREST EXPOSES OUTDATED POLITICS OF FEAR AND MANIPULATION
The recent clarification by His Excellency, Governor Monday Okpebholo, regarding the Ekpoma unrest has once again exposed a dangerous and familiar political strategy: the deliberate sponsorship of insecurity to discredit a sitting government.
The Governor’s position is clear, factual, and backed by intelligence reports. What occurred in Ekpoma was not a students’ protest, but a criminal operation carried out by non-students hiding around Ambrose Alli University, exploiting the environment to extort, loot, destroy property, and sow fear. The Governor’s decisive engagement with the AAU SUG leadership, his directive for the immediate release of innocent students, and the confirmation by the university management itself all point to one truth: students were never the problem.
More importantly, Governor Okpebholo’s strong warning that anyone sponsoring insecurity—regardless of political status—will be brought to justice is not only timely but necessary. Edo State cannot be held hostage by desperate political actors whose only relevance now lies in chaos and blackmail.
However, honesty demands that the conversation does not end halfway.
It is on public record that the former governor openly threatened that Edo State would burn if his anointed candidate, Asue Ighodalo, lost the election. Today, that election has been lost, and since then, Edo State has not remained the same. What we are witnessing aligns disturbingly with that threat.
From self-imposed exile, the former governor has continued to pollute public discourse—attacking the present administration, traditional institutions, and even the revered monarchy—while his loyalists and political foot soldiers have conveniently regrouped under the ADC. This pattern is not coincidental; it is strategic.
Across Edo State—and indeed Nigeria—we are seeing the weaponization of insecurity by opposition elements who believe that fear, propaganda, and ethnic tension can achieve what the ballot could not. This tactic is not new. It is outdated. And most importantly, it no longer works.
The Nigerian people are wiser now. Edo people are wiser. No responsible citizen will support or vote for any political group that plays politics with lives, livelihoods, and public safety. A party that neglects—or worse, sponsors—insecurity has forfeited its moral right to govern.
This is why security must not be treated as a reactive issue alone. From the Presidency down to state governments and local government chairmen, there must be proactive, intelligence-driven action to expose, confront, and dismantle these old-fashioned tactics of destabilization.
Governor Okpebholo has shown leadership by separating criminals from students, truth from propaganda, and governance from politics of bitterness. The task ahead is to remain firm, protect law-abiding citizens, and ensure that Edo State is never again used as a battlefield for failed political ambitions.
Edo State deserves peace.
Edo people deserve security.
And no amount of sponsored chaos can overturn the will of a people who have chosen progress over manipulation.
A Final Question for the Opposition
Before Edo people are deceived by endless accusations and party-hopping theatrics, one simple question must be asked: In all of this insecurity, what practical step has the opposition taken to caution, prevent, or condemn it? Beyond moving from one party to another, trading blame, and seeking public sympathy, where is their contribution to peace, stability, or community safety? Are they not citizens of Edo State? Are they not stakeholders in its peace? Or is responsibility only attractive to them when they are in power? Leadership is not proven by criticism alone but by constructive engagement. Silence in the face of insecurity—especially when one has influence—is not neutrality; it is complicity.
Comrade Abu Michael, is a social activist, theologian, policy political/political analyst, and blogger from Edo State.
