Police order manhunt of killers of LP senatorial candidate

The Enugu State Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Ammani, has ordered the manhunt for the killers of the Enugu East senatorial candidate of the Labour Party for Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.

The Labour Party Senatorial candidate, Oyibo Chukwu, who was the former chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, was attacked and killed with his supporters their bodies set in the vehicle by gunmen who operated in a Hilux van in Eke-Otu.

Reacting in a statement after visiting the scene of attack at Ebony Paint Road and Eke-Otu both in Amechi-Awkunanaw, Enugu South Local Government Area, on Thursday, the State commissioner of Police, Ahmed Ammani, condemned the killings, describing it as unacceptable in a modern democracy.

In the statement issued by the State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Daniel Ndukwe, the commissioner attributed the killings to members of the IPOB/ESN.

Ndukwe said that the commissioner had also ordered the intensification of discreet investigations and manhunt of the subversive criminal elements suspected to be IPOB/ESN renegades.

According to the statement, the assailants on Wednesday night “at different locations, ambushed and simultaneously attacked and murdered the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party members, and also attempted to attack the convoy of the All Progressives Congress governorship candidate.”

The commissioner has commiserated with the family members and parties of the deceased, vowing to ensure that the perpetrators are fished out and made to face the full wrath of the law.

While he reaffirmed the undiluted commitment of the police and other security agencies to put in place adequate security for a peaceful and credible elections in the state, the police chief appealed to Enugu citizens not to succumb to the cowardly antics of the hoodlums, which is aimed at creating fear and to disrupt the electoral process.

Ndukwe said that preliminary investigation into the incidents show that the armed hoodlums, operating in a tricycle, attacked a PDP campaign Mini Bus at Topland by Ebony Paint Road, Amechi-Awkunanaw Enugu and used petrol bomb to set it ablaze, burning to death its driver, simply identified as one KC Great (male).

“In a similar fashion, another set of the same armed assailants, operating in a Hilux vehicle, attacked and set ablaze the campaign vehicle of the Labour Party, at Eke-Otu Amechi-Awkunanaw Enugu, burning to death the party’s Senatorial candidate for Enugu East Senatorial District, Barr. Oyibo Chukwu (male) and his personal assistant (male) with him in the vehicle.

“However, the miscreants were repelled by security operatives while attempting to also attack the convoy of the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress at Eke, Agbani, Nkanu West LGA,” Ndukwe disclosed.

(Punch)