BY GODDY OBI
The Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate Peter Obi has condemned what he described as the “targeted killing” of the party’s house of assembly candidate in Imo State Christopher Eleghu.
Eleghu was killed by assailants in the early hours of Friday in his home with the attackers burning his vehicle and other properties, a development Obi says violates the spirit of civility.
“I am deeply disturbed by the evidently targeted killing of the Labour Party State House of Assembly candidate for Onuimo LGA in Imo State, Hon. Christopher Eleghu at his home. His house and cars were reportedly set ablaze,” Obi tweeted late Friday.
“I condemn these heinous acts in the strongest possible terms. Such acts violate our spirit of security, civility, and the recently signed Peace Accord. Federal and State security agencies must work assiduously to uncover those behind this killing.”
The Imo State Police Command spokesman Mike Abattam said the incident happened in the early hours of Friday at Mr Eleghu’s country home in the Umucheke community of Onuimo council.
The assassins, he said, set his home ablaze after killing him and also burnt down his vehicle and other valuables.
He said the Imo State Commissioner of Police Mohammed Barde has ordered an investigation into the unfortunate incident and has also activated all tactical units of the command to go after the assailants for possible arrest and apprehension.
Some weeks back, an LP women leader in Kaduna Victoria Chintex was killed.
Gunmen have equally targeted offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission in the South-East state in the past months. The most recent one which happened a few days back claimed some lives.
In his reaction to the attacks, Governor Hope Uzodimma linked them to political actors.
“If we collaborate this with the events of the past, we have continuously said that what is happening in Imo State is politically contrived,” he said when he visited the Imo Police headquarters after one of the attacks.
“Some people think that they can win the election yet they don’t want the election. How would they now win?”
But INEC said critical materials were not destroyed in the incident.
“The attack affected the part of the building occupied by the Election and Party Monitoring (EPM) Department and one official utility vehicle (a Toyota Hilux pickup van) were burnt,” INEC’s National Commissioner Festus Okoye said in a statement hours after the incident.
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