The family of the slain Labour Party (LP) candidate for the 2023 Enugu East Senatorial election, Chief Victor Oyibo Chukwu, has stated that their illustrious son was murdered by assassins because of his popularity and that of the Labour Party in Enugu State and across the country.
The late Chukwu was assassinated on Wednesday, February 22, 2023, at Amechi, Uwani, in Enugu South local council area, on his way from a meeting with family members in the Enugu East zone by daredevil assassins. They also killed and burnt his personal assistant, Mr Sunday Igwesi, who was with him in the same vehicle.
Addressing newsmen in Enugu on behalf of the Chukwu family, the Head, Dept of Professional Ethics and Skills Nigerian Law school, Yola Campus, Prof. Arthur Chukwu, condemned the killings, lamenting that never in the political history of Enugu State has sacrilege of this magnitude occurred.
Chukwu pointed out that apart from being a political veteran on the national stage, their late son, a senior lawyer, led the Nigerian Bar Association in Oji River from 2017 to 2019, adding that his professional colleagues can always testify to his courage, wisdom, tenacity, vision and uncanny organisational skills.
He also recalled that their worthy son had, based on credible intelligence, confided in a couple of persons that he was being trailed by members of the Ebeano Political Group.
Still quoting the late Chukwu, he said: “In the morning of Wednesday, February 22, 2022, the very day he was killed, the late Senatorial candidate told some persons that he was going to write a petition to the security and intelligence agencies in Enugu State on the plans to eliminate him, so that the agencies could investigate the persons involved and nip their evil plans in the bud.
“The threat to his life spiked when he directed his lawyer, Mr. Chukwudi Igwe, to file a suit in the Federal High Court in Abuja challenging the legal status of the participation of a former Enugu State Governor, Dr. Chimaraoke Nnamani, as the PDP candidate in the Enugu East Senatorial Zone since he has been expelled from his party. The Nigerian Constitution provides that only candidates sponsored by political parties can contest in an election.”
Prof Chukwu noted that the level of hate and intolerance that could lead a person to plan and execute this kind of action against innocent persons whose only offence was that they chose to exercise their right of participation in the nation’s electoral process is unimaginable.
“It was not just Chief Chukwu they stopped, but the entire Enugu East Senatorial Zone whose people have for several years been yearning for effective representation in the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and, by extension, good governance.
“We find it curious that a whole two days after Chief Chukwu, the Owelle of Amuri, a member of the Constituent Assembly in Abuja and the National Auditor of the Social Democratic Party in the Third Republic was murdered in the most brutal way, the Enugu State Government has not deemed it important to condemn the killing and the killing of his PA; nor has any of its officials visited the Chukwu family even here in Enugu City.
“Yet, His Excellency, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State claims that his greatest legacy since his assumption of office almost eight years ago is an atmosphere of peace,” he stated.
While assuring people in Enugu East Senatorial Zone and the rest of the state that their great son would not die in vain, Prof Chukwu urged the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Security to bring to book those behind the crime and their collaborators.
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