From the moment Senator Monday Okpebholo was sworn in on November 12, 2024, a cloud of foreboding descended upon Edo State. His tenure, albeit brief, has already steered the state dangerously close to a political Armageddon — a harrowing descent from constitutional order into institutional desecration. The pathway to Golgotha — the place of pain, suffering, and public crucifixion — is now tragically symbolic of the Edo people’s present plight.
Democracy in Recession: INEC’s Dangerous Silence
Eight months into the Okpebholo administration, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has failed, without justification, to conduct bye-elections for the Edo Central Senatorial District and the Ovia Federal Constituency. This prolonged vacancy has left thousands without representation in Nigeria’s federal legislature.
Such silence is not merely administrative sloth; it portends complicity. Are we to believe that INEC is hesitating because it presumes the Supreme Court might reverse what were clearly flawed and questionable decisions by the lower courts — decisions that conveniently unseated opposition figures to the benefit of the Governor and his allies?
In a democracy, delay is not neutral. It disenfranchises. It wounds the sovereignty of the people. It delegitimizes governance.
Authoritarianism in Broad Daylight
Rather than unite a fractured state, Okpebholo has embraced tactics more familiar to autocrats than democrats. His administration now freely invokes the rhetoric of “cultism”, a dangerously malleable label, as a tool of repression. His Attorney General has threatened to prosecute opposition figures such as Ogbeide Ifaluyi-Isibor, a respected voice in our democratic space. More chilling is the threat to demolish the home of Rt. Hon. Marcus Onabu, a sitting PDP Member of the House of Representatives, under the most opaque and dubious allegations.
This is not law. This is vendetta disguised as justice. It is governance by brute symbolism — the bulldozer, not the ballot.
The Legal Farce: When the State Becomes the Lawbreaker
It is doubly tragic that the very legal architecture Okpebholo now manipulates is one he helped create. The Edo State Secret Cult and Similar Activities (Prohibition) Law, 2025, championed and signed by him, is being desecrated by his own administration.
Let us examine its most pertinent provisions:
Section 5 criminalizes the promotion, funding, or organization of cultism. It requires proof, prosecution, and conviction, not hearsay or executive fiat.
Section 6 empowers law enforcement to investigate and arrest suspects, but only within the limits of judicial oversight.
Section 7 is unambiguous: every suspect is entitled to know the charges, to be presented before a court, and to a fair trial.
What we now witness in Edo State — extrajudicial demolitions, media trials, and political witch hunts — constitute a grotesque inversion of these provisions. Okpebholo is not enforcing the law; he is trampling it. He has chosen the path of Golgotha not for himself, but for his perceived enemies, dragging them to public ruin without due process or compassion.
A Word to the Attorney General: Resignation is Honourable
A true Attorney General is the conscience of the Executive, not its accomplice. When an administration begins to pervert the law it swore to uphold, resignation becomes not only honourable, but obligatory. Were I in that position, I would have resigned rather than preside over this desecration of our constitution and statutes.
Rt. Hon. Samson Osagie: A Voice Missing in the Wilderness
I have always held Rt. Hon. Samson Osagie in high esteem. His years in the legislature, both at the state and federal levels, were marked by uncommon courage and eloquence. But his silence now is deafening. I do not believe he would have tolerated this scale of executive recklessness in his heyday. So, I ask: What has changed? Is this the same Samson Osagie who once thundered against tyranny, or has silence become a strategy?
The House of Assembly: A Chamber in Recess
The Edo State House of Assembly has abdicated its constitutional duty. It has neither queried the executive’s lawlessness nor offered the people clarity or comfort. It has become a rubber stamp, a bystander in an era that demands bold stewardship. History will record its failure, unless it finds its voice, and soon.
If This Be the Future, God Help Edo.
If this trajectory continues — if bulldozers replace ballots, threats replace dialogue, and impunity replaces process — then the future of Edo State is bleak:
A state where fear replaces freedom
Where courts are ignored and critics are crushed
Where power is not accountable, but absolute
This is not the Edo our heroes envisioned. It is not the Edo I fight for. It must not be the Edo we bequeath to our children.
Conclusion: A Call to Action and Conscience
As a lawyer, a statesman, and an apostle of Edo renaissance, I call for urgent redirection.
To Governor Okpebholo: The law is not your enemy. It is your boundary. You are not above it, you are subject to it.
To the Attorney General: The soul of justice cannot cohabit with tyranny. Consider your conscience.
To Rt. Hon. Samson Osagie and other elder statesmen: Your silence today will be remembered tomorrow. The moment demands your courage.
To the House of Assembly: Awaken! If you cannot speak for the people, then you serve no purpose.
We have reached our Golgotha, but unlike the biblical crucifixion, resurrection depends not on divine intervention, but on civic courage. Let this be the turning point. Let us resist with reason. Let us revive Edo with law, order, respect for the principle of the rule of law and the doctrine of separation of powers.
Daniel Aroren Noah Osa-Ogbegie, Esq.
Statesman, Senior Legal Practitioner, and Founding Partner, Noah Attorneys
Akpakpava, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.