Benin chief alleges assassination attempt

Every employee of Petroleum Product Monitoring Service knows Blaise Orubor as a man who is not afraid of doing extra work. This quality endeared him to the Chairman of the company, Chief Henry Omoridion.

So, when Orubor volunteered to drive Omoridion’s vehicle from Benin in Edo State to Lagos State when his driver was not available, most of the staff saw his gesture as a familiar thing. At the end of the day, suspected assassins opened fire on the vehicle at Ijebu Ode end of Benin-Ore Expressway and Orubor escaped death by a whisker. He however lost a finger.


Omoridion told PUNCH METRO that he was the target of the attack. He said that the assassins must have been monitoring his movement as he was returning to Lagos.

He said, “I have been receiving threats of all kinds; kidnapping and death threats to mention a few. That day I left Benin, where I went to participate in the Peoples Democratic Primaries in Igbanke, in Orhiomwon Local Government area of Edo State. I got into that vehicle, a Toyota Hilux, instead of my personal vehicle. That Toyota was just like an escort vehicle. On the way, I changed my mind and decided to take a flight. I alighted from the vehicle and took another car to the airport while the Hilux proceeded to Lagos.

“Obviously, the killers did not know that I changed my mind as that Hilux was attacked at Ijebu Ode.”

Omoridion appealed to the Federal Government to strengthen the security in the country so that criminal elements would not have opportunity to perpetrate their nefarious activities.

He also urged the government to order a probe into the threats against him, adding that he was sure that some politicians were after his life.

But the spokesman of the Ogun State Police Command, Mr. Muyiwa Adejobi, ruled out assassination, saying that the attack on Omoridion was merely a robbery-gone-wrong.

He said, “Armed robbers operated inside a filling station on January 9, 2011. After they finished their operation, they started shooting sporadically into the air in a desperate attempt to escape from the area and from the police. In the process, a Toyota Hilux was hit by a stray bullet.

“There was nothing like assassination in this matter. It was just a case of a stray bullet hitting a vehicle. By the way, the owner was not in that vehicle and the case was not reported to the police until January 17.”

Source:Punch