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"An Individual Who Is Answerable to the Law": Edo Government Disowns Okpebholo's Aide After Viral Video Threatening Peter Obi, ADC Members
The Edo State Government has been forced into a public retreat after a viral video showing a senior aide to Governor Monday Okpebholo issuing threats of arrest against opposition figures and calling former presidential candidate Peter Obi an "idiot" ignited a storm of national outrage. The video, which surfaced on Friday, April 25, 2026, captured Emmanuel Eghogho — popularly known as Egogo or Agogo the Towncrier — in the presence of the state's Commissioner of Police, Monday Agbonika, casually promising to hand over any member of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) found in Edo State to the police "straight to Abuja." The CP's visible smile as the threats were being delivered became an instant flashpoint on social media. By Monday, April 27, the government had summoned journalists to a press briefing in Benin City for the sole purpose of severing itself from the firestorm.
"We want to distance ourselves from that statement because it is not the position of the Edo State Government, but the voice of an individual that is answerable to existing laws of the land," declared Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Prince Kassim Afegbua, at the hastily arranged briefing. His language was deliberate and unequivocal — and it needed to be. The video had done in 90 seconds what opposition politicians could not accomplish in months: it painted the Okpebholo administration as a regime willing to weaponise state security apparatus against its political rivals.
What the Viral Video Showed
The footage, which spread across X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and WhatsApp within hours of being posted, shows Egogo addressing Commissioner of Police Monday Agbonika in a tone that was part familiarity, part performance. Speaking in Pidgin English, he declared: "CP Monday, the name of the governor is Monday and your name is Monday, that's why you people are working. CP, I am loyal to you. When we catch ADC people we will hand them over to you, straight to Abuja… People like that Obi, idiot." The reference to the shared first name between Governor Okpebholo and CP Agbonika was unmistakably an invocation of a special relationship — a claim that the police commissioner was, effectively, the governor's man.
It was not the threat itself that caused the deepest damage; it was the setting in which it was delivered. CP Agbonika, the state's top law enforcement officer, sat in his office — or somewhere that certainly looked like it — while a political appointee casually informed him that opposition members would be rounded up and transported to Abuja. At no point in the circulating clip did Agbonika object, interrupt, or reprimand. Instead, he smiled. To the millions who watched the video, that smile spoke louder than any police press release ever could.
Edo Government's Damage Control: "It Is Not Our Article of Trade"
Afegbua's Monday press briefing was a study in controlled firefighting. He deployed language designed to create maximum distance between the government and its loose-tongued aide. "We want to disown that statement as not the position of government, as the voice of an individual who is also amenable to existing laws of the land," he said, according to Daily Post. He added, with an edge of irritation: "I think it's the media that makes people like Egogo important. When you ignore and face the larger issue, the bigger issue, people will not take such a young man seriously."
Premium Times reported that Afegbua described the video as "incendiary" and insisted the administration was focused on promoting "peace, unity and democratic engagement." He stated: "The governor does not tolerate thuggery, political intimidation or any attempt to subdue or cow the opposition using subtle threats or otherwise. We welcome robust opposition engagement, constructive engagement and collective bargaining. Opposition helps ruling parties to think better." He added pointedly: "It is not our article of trade. It is not our thematic focus as a government. We try as much as possible to promote unity of purpose and a spirit of camaraderie among all Edo residents."
Afegbua also issued an unmistakable signal to law enforcement, urging the DSS, police, and civil defence to "rise to the occasion by ensuring that such persons are made to face the full wrath of the law for their actions." Whether that invitation will be taken up remains to be seen.
Police Command's Fraught Response: "He Is a Comedian"
The Edo State Police Command found itself in an even more delicate position. With its commissioner captured on video smiling while threats were issued, the command's spokesman, ASP Eno Ikoedem, was dispatched to issue a statement that attempted to neutralise the damage without directly criticising the man who had made the remarks.
The statement, as reproduced by multiple outlets, read: "The Command wishes to state unequivocally that the comments made in the video by the said Emmanuel Eghogho are entirely those of the individual concerned and do not in any way reflect the views, position, or disposition of the Commissioner of Police or the Edo State Police Command. At no point did the Commissioner of Police endorse, adopt, or align himself with the remarks made." The command further described Egogo as a "well known comedian in Benin City" — a characterisation that drew instant derision from social media users who pointed out that Egogo is, in fact, a Senior Special Assistant to the Governor.
The police statement added that remarks were "being diligently interrogated for any security implications other than that of comedy and showmanship." That framing — suggesting the threats were entertainment rather than incitement — only deepened the controversy. Netizens were unforgiving. One user, @usual_suxpekt, wrote: "And he (CP Agbonika) couldn't say it there or reprimand the person uttering such inciting remarks but instead was smiling sheepishly. It was all shades of unprofessionalism on his part." Another, Francis Imariabe Junior, demanded: "For the records, he is not a comedian but SSA to the Edo State Governor. Don't you think he needs to be called for questioning?"
A Pattern of Concern
The Egogo controversy did not emerge in isolation. The Premium Times report noted that earlier this month, the Okpebholo administration sealed an event centre in Edo after a party where popular Nigerian rapper Eedris Abdulkareem had criticised President Bola Tinubu's administration over its response to the March 29 massacre in Plateau State. The sealing was widely condemned as political retaliation. The Egogo video, coming on the heels of that incident, reinforces a narrative — fair or not — that the Okpebholo government views dissent as a problem to be managed rather than a democratic right to be protected.
Afegbua pushed back against this characterisation, noting that several opposition figures had defected to the APC under Okpebholo's watch and arguing that this demonstrated political tolerance rather than intimidation. But the optics of a governor's aide threatening opposition leaders in a police commissioner's office — and the commissioner smiling as he did so — are difficult to erase with defection statistics.
The Distance Between Government and Governance
The Egogo episode exposes a familiar fault line in Nigerian politics: the gap between the official pronouncements of governments and the behaviour of their foot soldiers. Afegbua's press briefing was comprehensive, forthright, and professionally delivered. It ticked every box for accountability: the government distanced itself, condemned the remarks, and called on law enforcement to act. But the question hanging over Benin City is whether those words will be matched by consequences — for Egogo, for the culture of impunity that emboldened him to make those threats, and for a police commissioner whose smile has become a symbol of the blurring line between political loyalty and professional duty.
Stay tuned to Unuevbo TV for more in‑depth reporting on governance, political conduct, and public accountability across Edo State.
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