Continued from yesterday
Not long ago, the abducted Sole Administrator of the Ideato North Local Government, Imo State, Christopher Ohizu, was beheaded, filmed and posted on social media but the Imo State police command, the Department of State Services and all the security agencies could not arrest the killers or prevent this primitive act of criminality from happening.
This is as some politicians in the area are reported to have fled to Imo State capital, Owerri for their safety following the killing. It was gathered that Ohizu’s abductors had allegedly received N6 million ransom before beheading him on Sunday.
Ohizu was abducted with bullet wounds alongside two others after his country home at Imoko community in Arondizuogu area of the state was attacked.
The gunmen also razed the LGA premises.
Following the murder of Ohizu by gunmen other council members and members of All Progressives Congress (APC) have reportedly gone underground. It was reliably gathered that politicians have fled the council for Owerri, state capital of Imo state.
From Southern Kaduna comes the story that gunmen had killed the women leader of the Labour Party (LP), Victoria Chintex in Kaura LG of Kaduna State.
Publicity Secretary of the LP in southern Kaduna senatorial zone, Edward Buju revealed this in a statement. According to Buju, she died on Monday after gunmen invaded her residence in Kaura and shot her. Her husband was also said to have sustained gunshot injuries and is currently receiving treatment at a medical facility.
The involvement of money in politics is also the main motivation for these attacks.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, had said that over N500 billion old naira notes stashed by politicians are yet to return to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Abdulrasheed Bawa stated this when he appeared on Channels TV’s Politics Today.
The EFCC chairman added that the commission had a lot of information on some of the means politicians were devising to buy votes during elections.
So politics in Nigeria is seen by politicians as money making gambit has made those seeking for political offices and those holding public offices as endangered species. It is reported that gunmen kidnapped the wife of the traditional ruler of Amuro autonomous community in the Okigwe Local Government Area of Imo State, Ugoeze Umugborogu.
Apart from kidnapping the monarch’s wife, the rampaging gunmen also burnt the country homes of the chairmen of All Progressives Congress and Labour Party in Amuro ward. The development caused panic in the community as residents fled their homes.
Okigwe LGA has in the last few months become a hotbed for criminal activities.
Some gunmen razed five houses in Amagu Ihube community in Okigwe LGA which included the houses of the state commissioner for youths and sports, Emeka Okoronkwo, a former Dean of the Law Faculty of the Imo State University, Nnamdi Obiaraeri, a retired Director of State Security Service, Nnaemeka Ngwu and two others.
Gunmen had last week razed the country homes of the Labour Party House of Assembly candidate for Okigwe LGA, Nnaemeka Obiaraeri and that of the Director General of the candidate of the Labour Party Okigwe North House of Representatives election, Okey Unam.
It is obviously late to expect that President Muhammadu Buhari will change his lackadaisical attitudes to the spate of insecurity. The best bet is to await the result of the election to see if the will of the people won’t be subverted.
If the President elected by the majority of the voters emerge after the poll, it will be the first major assignment of the winner to do something fast about the state of insecurity as soon as he is sworn in on May 29th. It is self-evident that the ineffectiveness of President Muhammadu Buhari has turned politics into a do-or-die affair or what we can now call a point-and-kill adventure.
Concluded
Onwubiko is head of the Human Rights Writers Association Of Nigeria and was the national commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria.
