Gunmen have murdered the Labour Party, LP, Imo State House of Assembly Candidate for Onuimo Local Government Area Mr Christopher Eleghu.
The Imo State Police Command spokesman Mike Abattam said the incident happened in the early hours of Friday at Mr Eleghu’s country home in the Umucheke community of Onuimo council.
The assassins, he said, set his home ablaze after killing him and also burnt down his vehicle and other valuables.
He said the Imo State Commissioner of Police Mohammed Barde has ordered an investigation into the unfortunate incident and has also activated all tactical units of the command to go after the assailants for possible arrest and apprehension.
Some weeks back, an LP women leader in Kaduna Victoria Chintex was killed.
Gunmen have equally targeted offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission in the South-East state in the past months. The most recent one which happened a few days back claimed some lives.
In his reaction to the attacks, Governor Hope Uzodimma linked them to political actors.
“If we collaborate this with the events of the past, we have continuously said that what is happening in Imo State is politically contrived,” he said when he visited the Imo Police headquarters after one of the attacks.
“Some people think that they can win the election yet they don’t want the election. How would they now win?”
But INEC said critical materials were not destroyed in the incident.
“The attack affected the part of the building occupied by the Election and Party Monitoring (EPM) Department and one official utility vehicle (a Toyota Hilux pickup van) were burnt,” INEC’s National Commissioner Festus Okoye said in a statement hours after the incident.
“This is the third attack on the Commission’s facilities in Imo State in less than two weeks following the earlier attacks on our Orlu LGA office on Thursday 1st December 2022 and Oru West LGA office on Sunday 4th December 2022.”
Gunmen Kill Councillor, One Other Person As Ondo Communal Clash Escalate
Two persons were killed in Koseru community, a farm settlement in Odigbo local government area of Ondo State when gunmen invaded the area in a suspected reprisal attack.
Those killed were the Councillor representing the axis and a local vigilance member simply identified as Kayode.
The name of the Councillor was yet to be verified as of the time of filing this report.
It was gathered that the gunmen launched the attack on Saturday, December 10, 2022, following the shooting of a woman in Kajola village, Okitipupa local government.
The gunmen suspected to be Ikale youths reportedly destroyed some farmlands.
A Facebook user, Christiana Umukoro, confirmed the attack and said his father was beaten by the attackers.
He said 95 percent of the villages have fled for their lives.
Special Adviser to Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu on Security Matters and Commander of the Ondo Amotekun Corps, Chief Adetunji Adeleye, said the corpses of the dead have been deposited in a mortuary.
Adeleye, who denied killing of Amotekun operatives in the attack, said normalcy has been restored to the community.
He stated that a combined team of policemen, soldiers and Amotekun Corps kept vigilance in the community.
According to him:” There has been an age-long crisis in Koseru between Oluku family of Ikale in Okitipupa and the Oyo/Osun farmers living in Odigbo local government. The Oyo/Osun are predominantly cash crop farmers. They have been fighting over ownership of the land.
“The fresh crisis erupted when a one women in Kajola was shot.
“We are suspecting a reprisal attack of some Ikale youths who mobilised themselves and launched attack on the unsuspecting Osun/Oyo farmers. There is a Councillor representing Oyo/Osun axis that was killed in the fracas. A vigilance member and not Amotekun was killed. Their corpses have been deposited at the hospital. Amotekun, Police and the Army maintain vigilance overnight to ensure peace returns. The attackers destroyed more of farmlands.”
Ondo Police spokesman, SP Funmilayo Odunlami, said no policeman was killed in the attack.
She said an official statement would soon be released.
Source: ChannelsTV
