Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate Peter Obi arrived in Jos, the Plateau State capital, hours after leaving Benue State, where youths believed to be political thugs blocked a main road into Makurdi.
Obi said he was travelling to Yelewata to visit families of victims of the June 2025 massacre when his convoy was stopped at Gyado Villa along Gboko Road. He appealed to the Inspector-General of Police, the Director of the Department of State Services (DSS) and other agencies to call state governors to order. “This rascality cannot be allowed,” he said.
“We have a country. We too have followers and people who can confront these people on our own if the state and the government can no longer provide us security.” He added that campaigns should focus on insecurity, hunger, killings and poverty, and recalled saying as much at an Allied Peoples Movement (APM) campaign-office launch.
Omoyele Sowore said those who blocked the road were toying with fire. Obi’s running mate, Rabi’u Kwankwaso, asked the international community to help protect opposition leaders.
A candidate stopped on the way to a massacre site turns a condolence visit into a security story. Obi’s warning that his own supporters could “confront” people if the state fails is a dual message: a plea for official protection and a reminder that private mobilisation is the alternative. That second sentence is the risk.
Political roadblocks invite retaliation, and retaliation invites a campaign defined by streets rather than ideas. The agencies he named now have a public request on record. How they handle the next convoy will say more about the 2027 climate than any statement issued after the road was already closed.
