The police have released Julius Abure, the national chairman of the Labour Party, who was arrested on Wednesday in Benin City, the capital of Edo State. 

According to the police, Abure was arrested following a petition alleging attempted murder and conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm. Additionally, the police accused Abure of unlawful possession of firearms. Following his release, Abure stated:

“No struggle to liberate a country comes easy. Many countries of the world where freedom fighters have fought for the emancipation of the people suffer injustice, suffer prosecution and it is what is happening to me and my other colleagues since after the general election.

“After the general election, they have tried to instigate crisis in the party, they tried to bring false accusations against us. They have come to talk about forgery at a time, when it did not work, they came with embezzlement.

“Any person that is aggrieved within the party, they go and instigate them to write petition and to make trouble. And the irony is that the police even act on those things (but) at the end of the day, they will find out that those things are false.

“Yesterday, we were making arrangements for the primaries and of course the police swamped on us, arrested us over what I would not want to discuss now because investigation is going on and therefore, I do not want to preempt them. “But I must state clearly that following several interventions, they have graciously released me on bail,” he added.