Nigeria’s Department of State Services has arrested a 26-year-old man who publicly claimed responsibility for last week’s attack on former presidential candidate Peter Obi in Benin City and threatened to have him killed during a planned visit to Rivers State, according to a security source familiar with the investigation.
The suspect, identified as Udeme Stephen, was traced to Rivers State where he works as a teacher at Jessica High School in Eliozu, Obio-Akpor local government area. DSS operatives located him through forensic tracking of his social media activity after he posted a series of messages on X under the handle @stevetom788, in which he appeared to take credit for the attack and issue an explicit threat against Obi’s life.
“We warned Obi against his entrance into Edo State but he mistook our resolves to obidiots online noise. Thank his stars he survived this one,” Stephen wrote in one of the posts. In another, he warned that Obi would not be spared during a forthcoming visit to Rivers State. “I learnt he’s going to my Rivers State. No wahala. Na my MEN go handle that one and dem no dey miss target,” he wrote.
Read Also: We’re in APC not to dislodge anyone, but to fortify the party — Fintiri
The attack on Obi took place last Tuesday at the Benin City residence of John Odigie-Oyegun, a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress, shortly after the group returned from the ADC secretariat where they had formally received Olumide Akpata — the Labour Party’s candidate in the 2024 Edo governorship election — into the party. Yunusa Tanko, national coordinator of the Obidient Movement, said several vehicles were destroyed and the gate to Odigie-Oyegun’s residence was shot at. Akpata subsequently disclosed that his cousin sustained a head injury during the assault after being struck with a bottle.
The security source said DSS operatives launched a covert investigation immediately after the posts surfaced, deploying forensic tools to identify and locate Stephen. “I strongly believe that the outcome of the agency’s forensic investigations implicated the suspect,” the source said. “They swiftly deployed operatives, and the man who threatened Peter Obi was nabbed and is in custody.”
The source added that the suspect would be charged in court in due course.
The arrest comes as the ADC has separately announced plans to file suit against the All Progressives Congress at the ECOWAS Court of Human Rights over the attack, accusing Edo State Governor Monday Okpebholo of making statements it says amounted to incitement ahead of the violence. The governor has not publicly responded to those allegations.
