Peter Obi's convoy is attacked in Calabar: police arrest a 27-year-old suspect and the NDC says no one in the delegation was injured

Independently verified

The attack and the arrest, on the police's account: at about 2:20pm on Wednesday 4 November 2026, as Peter Obi's convoy was returning from the palace of the Obong of Calabar to the Metropolitan Hotel, venue of the NDC's presidential town hall meeting, a group of suspected hoodlums armed with machetes and sticks emerged from the Calabar Road and Clerks Alley axis at Watt Market Roundabout and attacked vehicles in the convoy, smashing their windshields. Police personnel deployed in the area intervened, using tear gas to disperse the attackers; a 27-year-old suspect, named in the police statement as Victor Edet Yellow-Duke, was arrested while others fled, and operatives of the Violent Crime Response Unit took him to the State Police Headquarters for investigation. Commissioner of Police Ajo Geoffrey Ordue ordered a thorough investigation to identify and arrest the others involved and establish the full circumstances, and the command stressed: “The arrest of a suspect does not amount to a determination of guilt, as the suspect remains entitled to the presumption of innocence pending the conclusion of investigation and any subsequent judicial proceedings.” The party's reaction: the NDC said no member of Obi's delegation was injured, although vehicles in the convoy were damaged. In a statement signed by Dr Chiogo Constance Ikokwu, spokesperson of its National Presidential Campaign Council, the party called the incident an unacceptable threat to peaceful democratic participation — “Nigeria belongs to all of us, and every Nigerian has the right to campaign, associate and participate in politics without fear of violence” — called on the Cross River State Government and security agencies to investigate fully and prosecute anyone found culpable, warned that silence and inaction embolden perpetrators, and said: “NDC will not be intimidated, silenced or deterred by violence.” Obi went on to the Metropolitan Hotel and held the scheduled town hall meeting. The wider scene the same afternoon: police and other security operatives also kept apart two converging crowds near the town hall venue — hundreds of NDC supporters and a large APC rally and road walk heading towards the Governor's Office — engaging both groups and diverting the APC crowd, which the police spokesperson said prevented a possible clash. The Sun reports Obi and his running mate Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso then addressed the town hall, where Obi pledged to unite Nigeria and tackle insecurity and corruption. Obi's own account differs in one detail from the police statement: in a video reported by TheCable, Obi said some unnamed persons threw stones at his convoy after sighting NDC supporters, forcing his team to take another route before the attackers eventually fled, and said of such incidents: “All these are happening because Nigerians allow it. But we are not going to allow it in 2027.”