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Police chief confirms 3 dead; suspects IPOB/ESN renegades
From Geoffrey Anyanwu, Enugu
The Commissioner of Police, Enugu State Command, Ahmed Ammani, has ordered a manhunt for the killers of Labour Party (LP) senatorial candidate for Enugu East Oyibo Chukwu, and two others.
The State Police Command confirmed Thursday that only the LP candidate and his male Personal Assistant were killed in the attack on them at Eke-Otu Amechi-Awkunanaw on Wednesday night; while a driver of a PDP campaign vehicle was burnt to death at Topland by Ebony Paint Road, Amechi-Awkunanaw; all by individuals police have described as “subversive criminal elements suspected to be IPOB/ESN renegades.”
In a statement by police spokesman DSP Daniel Ndukwe, the Command said what happened was simultaneous attacks and murder of PDP and LP political party members which the CP has condemned and ordered the assailants to be apprehended.
Ndukwe said, “Meanwhile, preliminary investigations 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 a 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 Progressive Congress (APC) at Eke, Agbani, Nkanu West LGA.”
Ndukwe said CP Ammani who visited the scenes of the incidents the same night at Topland by Ebony Paint Road and Eke-Otu both in Amechi-Awkunanaw, Enugu, assured that the police remain committed to secure and peaceful general elections and tasked the citizens not to succumb to cowardly antics of assailants.
“The Commissioner, while strongly condemning the barbaric acts, has commiserated with the Parties and family members of the deceased, vowing to ensure that the perpetrators are fished out and made to face the full wrath of the law. He, therefore, reaffirms the undiluted commitment of the Police and other Security Agencies to emplace adequate security for peaceful and credible elections in the State, while urging the citizens not to succumb to the cowardly antics of the hoodlums, which is aimed at creating fear and to disrupt the electoral process,” he added.
