{"id":170413,"date":"2025-07-20T20:28:47","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T19:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi"},"modified":"2025-07-20T22:39:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T21:39:21","slug":"falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi","title":{"rendered":"Falana Warns Gov Okpebholo Over Threat to Obi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Femi Falana, has called on Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State to immediately retract recent threats made against the former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi.<\/p>\n<p>Falana\u2019s reaction followed remarks attributed to the governor during a political rally in Uromi, Esan North East Local Government Area, where he reportedly warned that Obi must not enter Edo State without prior notification or security clearance.<\/p>\n<p>The governor said: \u201cThere\u2019s a new sheriff in town. He cannot just come into Edo without informing me. His security will not be guaranteed. If anything happens to him here, he will have himself to blame. I\u2019m not joking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a statement released on Sunday, Falana condemned the governor\u2019s comments, describing them as a direct violation of fundamental rights enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution and international human rights instruments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe threat to Mr Peter Obi\u2019s life by the so-called \u2018new sheriff in town\u2019 contravenes Section 33 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), as well as Article 4 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples\u2019 Rights, both of which guarantee the right to life,\u201d Falana stated.<\/p>\n<p>He emphasized that under Section 14(2)(b) of the Constitution, the security and welfare of citizens remain the primary responsibility of government, urging Governor Okpebholo to publicly retract the threat, issue an apology to Obi, and affirm his safety within Edo State.<\/p>\n<p>Falana also advised that if the governor fails to withdraw the statement, Obi should seek legal redress by filing a suit at the Federal High Court in Benin to enforce his fundamental rights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr Obi should act with utmost urgency in view of the prevalence of mob justice and other forms of extrajudicial killings in the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Femi Falana, has called on Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State to immediately retract recent threats made against the former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi. Falana\u2019s reaction followed remarks attributed to the governor during a political rally in Uromi, Esan [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":170412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[102,254,12790,222],"class_list":["post-170413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-falana","tag-nigeria","tag-okpebholo","tag-peter-obi"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Falana Warns Gov Okpebholo Over Threat to Obi - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Femi Falana, has called on Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo Sta ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Falana Warns Gov Okpebholo Over Threat to Obi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Femi Falana, has called on Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo Sta ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-20T19:28:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-20T21:39:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/sm_1753035068.299442.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"899\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"490\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Falana Warns Gov Okpebholo Over Threat to Obi\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-20T19:28:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-20T21:39:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi\"},\"wordCount\":312,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/sm_1753035068.299442.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"FALANA\",\"Nigeria\",\"Okpebholo\",\"Peter Obi\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi\",\"name\":\"Falana Warns Gov Okpebholo Over Threat to Obi - Nigeria\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/sm_1753035068.299442.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-20T19:28:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-20T21:39:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Femi Falana, has called on Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo Sta ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/sm_1753035068.299442.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/sm_1753035068.299442.jpg\",\"width\":899,\"height\":490,\"caption\":\"Falana Warns Gov Okpebholo Over Threat to Obi\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Falana Warns Gov Okpebholo Over Threat to Obi\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/\",\"name\":\"Africa Press | Nigeria | Homepage\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/author\/cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Falana Warns Gov Okpebholo Over Threat to Obi - Nigeria","description":"Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Femi Falana, has called on Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo Sta ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Falana Warns Gov Okpebholo Over Threat to Obi","og_description":"Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Femi Falana, has called on Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo Sta ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi","og_site_name":"Nigeria","article_published_time":"2025-07-20T19:28:47+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-20T21:39:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":899,"height":490,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/sm_1753035068.299442.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Falana Warns Gov Okpebholo Over Threat to Obi","datePublished":"2025-07-20T19:28:47+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-20T21:39:21+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi"},"wordCount":312,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/sm_1753035068.299442.jpg","keywords":["FALANA","Nigeria","Okpebholo","Peter Obi"],"articleSection":["all news","Policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi","name":"Falana Warns Gov Okpebholo Over Threat to Obi - Nigeria","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/sm_1753035068.299442.jpg","datePublished":"2025-07-20T19:28:47+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-20T21:39:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Femi Falana, has called on Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo Sta ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/sm_1753035068.299442.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/sm_1753035068.299442.jpg","width":899,"height":490,"caption":"Falana Warns Gov Okpebholo Over Threat to Obi"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/falana-warns-gov-okpebholo-over-threat-to-obi#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Falana Warns Gov Okpebholo Over Threat to Obi"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/","name":"Africa Press | Nigeria | Homepage","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/author\/cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}