The Department of State Services (DSS) has arrested a man identified as Udeme Stephen, accused of being behind the attempt to assassinate the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, in Benin, the Edo State capital.
Stephen was said to have been apprehended by the DSS after claiming responsibility for the attack and threatening further attacks on the Anambra state former governor.
The suspect, who was said to have been arrested on Monday, was alleged to have confirmed the action through his social media handle, @stevetom788, minutes after the attack.
He was apprehended barely one week after Obi, a former governor of Edo State, John Oyegun, and several chieftains and members of the opposition party, African Democratic Congress (ADC), escaped death by the whiskers when armed men fired several gunshots at them at their party meeting in Benin.
Stephen stated online that Obi was lucky to have escaped in Benin, and vowed that the former presidential candidate wouldn’t be that lucky next time.
“We warned Obi against his entrance into Edo State, but he mistook our resolve for his Obidiots online noise. Thank his stars he (Obi) survived this one…
“I learnt he’s going to my Rivers State… Na my men go handle that one and dem no dey miss target… Speak no peace to a bastard and wish him no long life, for he’s destined to die,” posted Udeme.
A top security source disclosed that, no sooner had Stephen issued the threat than DSS operatives began a covert investigation, deploying forensic analysis to track and arrest him.
The source disclosed that the suspect is a 26-year-old called Udeme Stephen, who teaches at Jessica High School in Eliozu, Rivers State, at Umuehere Community, in Obio-Akpor LGA of the state.
“I strongly believe that the outcome of the agency’s forensic investigations implicated the suspect,” the source stressed
“You know that, as a responsible security organisation saddled with the task of counter-espionage, VIP protection, among other asset protection duties, the DSS is always alive to its responsibility of investigating credible intelligence, irrespective of tribe or religion.
“They swiftly deployed operatives and the man who threatened Peter Obi was nabbed and is in custody,” the source declared, adding that Stephen would soon be charged to court.
