The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State has condemned the arrest and arraignment of 52 persons, including students of Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, who were protesting incessant kidnapping in the state.

The party urged the Edo State Government and the Nigerian Police to as a matter of urgency release the protesters.

The Publicity Secretary of the party, Dan Osa-Ogbegie, in a statement he signed and made available to journalists in Benin yesterday, said Governor Monday Okpekbolo’s administration was handling the issue of insecurity with a “combination of incompetence, indifference and authoritarian reflexes.”

The PDP stated that the arrest and continued detention of peaceful protesters, many of them students, exposed what it called the, “true character of the APC government in Edo State: brutal towards citizens, timid before criminals, and hostile to democratic expression.