Election: Man shot dead in Ayogu Eze’s compound BUSINESS

Navigation: Home > News > BUSINESS > Election: Man shot dead in Ayogu Eze’s compound

Election: Man shot dead in Ayogu Eze’s compound

By Tony Edike on 09/03/2019

The victim lying in a pool of his own blood at Senator Ayogu Eze's compound

A young man identified as Onuorah Odoh, a brother to an All Progressives Congress, APC House of Assembly candidate in Enugu State, has been shot dead.

He was reportedly gunned down by a security operative attached to Senator Ayogu Eze, the governorship candidate of the APC in Saturday’s election.

Eze and his supporters had earlier Saturday announced their decision to boycott the election claiming that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, failed to include his name on the list of candidates for the governorship poll.

While Eze and his supporters were in his country-home at Umuida in Igboeze North Local Government Area lamenting the non-inclusion of his name on the list, a Toyota Hiace Bus with registration number ENSG 3069, which was shielded, drove to the premises with some unknown persons.

It was learnt that the occupants of the vehicle, who claimed to be Election Observers, had demanded to see Senator Eze but were told that Eze’s premises was not a polling unit and that they should visit the polling centres for their observation.

Their insistence to see Eze aroused suspicion which attracted the crowd of supporters in the compound who immediately conducted a search on the bus to ascertain their real identity and their mission.

The Senator’s supporters were said to have observed that the occupants had some PDP campaign materials and a vehicle with Enugu State Government number plate.

Suspecting that they were agents of the PDP apparently on a sinister mission, the crowd held them hostage and when the atmosphere became charged, policemen attached to Senator Eze reportedly attempted to calm the situation by shooting into the air.

It was in the process that the gun belonging to one of the policemen allegedly fell off his hand and began to discharge bullets uncontrollably and in the process Onuorah was hit by the stray bullet on the head and died at the spot.

Onuorah , whose brother was candidate for Enugu House of Assembly on the platform of APC for Igboeze North 1 constituency, had accompanied his brother on a solidarity visit to Eze’s house when the tragedy struck.

Following the pandemonium, it was further gathered, the occupants of the bus were held hostage before the police and soldiers came to the scene and took the remains of the deceased away. They also rescued the “observers” and took them away.

When contacted, the State Police Public Relations Officer, Ebere Amaraizu, confirmed the incident but could not say if the victim was dead as he was told that the victim was rushed to the hospital. He said that the police has commenced investigation into the incident.

However, in a statenent Saturday night, Amaraizu confirmed the death of Onuorah saying his corpse had been deposited in a mortuary.

It was not possible to speak with Senator Eze at press time as he was said to be busy trying to calm his people down.

Posted 09/03/2019 5:45:49 PM

Share on Tweet