Crimes

Gunmen kill Enugu senatorial candidate, five supporters, Rep’s driver

The Labour Party (LP) senatorial candidate for Enugu East, Mr. Oyibo Chukwu, has been killed by gunmen ahead of the Saturday February 25 election.

Five supporters of the senatorial candidate were also killed along with him on Wednesday, February 22.

Chukwu and five others were killed at Amechi in Awkunanaw Local Government Area of Enugu.

They were returning from a campaign rally when they were murdered in the evening.

After killing the candidate and his supporters, the killers burnt them inside Chukwu’s car.

Mr. Casmir Agbo, State Chairman of the party, confirmed this on Thursday.

“It’s true. Just yesterday evening. It’s a terrible situation,” he said.

Also, confirming the incident, Mr. Norbert Okolo, Media Aide to the Deputy Governorship candidate of the party, Dr. John Nwokeabia, said Chukwu was burnt in his branded vehicle alongside five of his aides.

“This is terrible. It is very fearful. People should be very careful this time because you don’t know who are responsible,” he said.

A security expert, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, expressed shock over the incident but cautioned people that it is too early to apportion blame.

“It’s too early to say who did this or that, because you don’t know those responsible.

“My advice is that police should go into intelligence gathering as quickly as possible, while people should be extremely careful,” he said.

In a related development, a branded vehicle belonging to the House of Representatives candidate for Enugu North/South Federal Constituency, Mr Offor Chukwuegbo, was also burnt with the driver inside at Topland area on the same night.

Chukwuegbo is a second-term member of the House of Representatives and currently contesting for third term on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

A group belonging to Simon Ekpa, a factional leader of the Eastern Security Network (ESN), had earlier placed embargo on election in the South-East region.

The Star