The Anambra State Police Command confirmed on Monday that five people were killed, including two police officers and three civilians, when gunmen attacked the convoy of Senator Ifeanyi Ubah of Anambra South on Sunday.
Tochukwu Ikenga, the state Police Public Relations Officer, revealed this in an interview.
On Sunday, while returning to his hometown of Nnewi, Ubah’s convoy was attacked by gunmen in Enugwu-Ukwu, Njikoka Local Government Area of the state.
However, one of our correspondents learned that no arrests had been made.
Aside from the five people killed, the police spokesperson stated that two officers were injured and are currently being treated.
“Two policemen and three civilians were killed in the attack while the two injured police officers are currently receiving treatment.
“No arrest has been made yet as we are still exploring every avenue to unravel the perpetrators of the attack. Further details will be communicated as development unfolds,” Ikenga said.
Meanwhile, a source identified some of the victims of the attack, saying, “Senator Ifeanyi Ubah lost his treasurer, Mr Ikechukwu Odum, who is his most trusted aide. He also lost his personal assistant, Mr Goodness Mathias.
“Another man killed, who was not in the convoy of the Senator, was identified as Onowu Agu-Ukwu Nri. He is said to be a titled chief in the neighbouring Nri community and had just driven to Enugwu-Ukwu to drop someone who visited him, who would be travelling to Lagos this morning, and he was unlucky to be at that point at the time when Senator Ubah was attacked.
“He was driving an SUV, so the assassins may have thought he was in the senator’s convoy, and he was gunned down.
“During the confusion on Sunday, all the cars were just hitting one another. Since the vehicle the senator was driving in was bulletproof, his driver managed to manoeuvre out of the damaged cars and drive away, even as it was being shot at.”
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Senator’s aide
All efforts made to speak to Ubah proved abortive as his telephone line did not connect.
But the senator’s Media Assistant, Mr Kameh Ogbonna, said if not for the bulletproof SUV, his principal would have been killed by the assailants’ bullets.
“If not for the bulletproof SUV the senator was riding in, he would have been dead by now. We were passing Enugwu Ukwu junction when they hit us from all sides,” he said.
Outrage over attack
The Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo; a former governor of the state, Mr Peter Obi; the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, have condemned the attack.
While condemning the attack, Soludo, through a press statement by his media aide, said the government was fully determined to wipe out every act of criminality in the state, noting, “This is the last-ditch effort of a sinking boat by these criminal elements.”
Obi, on his part, said the attack was “unfortunate and condemnable”, describing it as one of the “cumulative” effects of bad leadership over the years.
The state Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr Okelo Madukaife, commiserated with the senator and families of his aides who lost their lives as well as the state Commissioner of Police.
Apex socio-political youth organisation in Igbo land, the Coalition of South-East Youth Leaders, also condemned the attack.
