From Adesuwa Tsan, Abuja
The Chairman of the South East Senate Caucus, Enyinnaya Abaribe, has condemned what he described as a “dangerous descent into lawlessness” following reports that Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo, allegedly threatened former Anambra State Governor and Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, over a planned visit to the state.
Abaribe, a former Senate Minority Leader, said the restriction of movement placed on Obi was not only unconstitutional but also a “direct challenge to Nigeria’s unity and an open attack on the foundation of democracy.”
In a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, by his media adviser, Uchenna Awom, Abaribe warned that no governor in a constitutional democracy had the legal right to restrict a citizen’s movement or subject such movement to personal approval.
“It is therefore disheartening that leaders who are supposedly the custodians of the letters and spirit of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, would decide to wilfully be at the driving seat of its denigration in the name of politics,” Abaribe stated.
The senator was reacting to media reports suggesting that Governor Okpebholo had warned that Obi’s security could not be guaranteed in Edo unless he obtained clearance from the state government before entering.
“That is a dangerous threat to life that the authorities should not gloss over,” Abaribe warned. “Nigeria is governed by rules, and her leaders in all sub-national governments subscribed to the adherence and respect to the rule of law as enshrined in the constitution.”
He said that no elected governor, especially one who previously served as a senator and lawmaker, should be in doubt about the scope of constitutional rights afforded to citizens, chief among them being freedom of movement and association.
“Governor Okpebholo needs to be reminded that Nigeria belongs to all of us and that he is dead wrong to claim authority that he does not have,” the Abia South senator said.
“The beauty of democracy is made manifest in the expression of freedom to hold divergent views and the freedom of movement of every Nigerian in any part of the Nigerian Federation, Edo State inclusive,” he added.
Abaribe cautioned that such utterances and posturing from a sitting governor are capable of stoking ethnic tensions and triggering a divisive trajectory that Nigeria can ill afford, particularly at a time of fragile unity and deepening political distrust.
He further stressed that attempts to isolate or intimidate political opponents not only weaken the democratic space but could also lead to a dangerous precedent where political control of a state is mistaken for personal ownership.
“I pray that nothing happens to Mr. Peter Obi,” Abaribe said. “This country is fast descending into lawlessness with this kind of mindset, and it is unacceptable.”
He urged security agencies and the relevant federal authorities to take the reported threat seriously and to make clear that such behaviour has no place in a country governed by constitutional order.
“Today it’s Peter Obi. Tomorrow it could be any other Nigerian,” he said. “We must reject this slide into constitutional recklessness. The rights of citizens are not gifts from governors—they are guaranteed by the constitution.”
The post Abaribe: Okpebholo’s threat to Obi violates Constitution appeared first on The Sun Nigeria.
