Gunmen kill another Rivers APC chieftain

UNKNOWN gunmen have killed another chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Jonathan Okwu Osia, in Egbada community in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area (ONELGA) of Rivers State.

Over forty policemen have been deployed to Obrikom, where a former ONELGA chairman, Christopher Adube, his sons (Lucky, John, Samuel); daughter (Joy) and his driver named as Iyke Ogarabe and two others, were murdered by suspected political thugs over the weekend to beef up security.

Osia, Chairman of Igburu Elders Council, who was a former director of sport in the state and a staunch APC chieftain in ONELGA, was murdered late Saturday night at his residence at Egbada community by yet to be identified gunmen.

A member of the deceased APC chieftain, who pleaded anonymity, told The Guardian that the gunmen invaded Osia’s home at about 9:00 pm and demanded that he renounce his membership of his party, which he declined. Having failed to make him renounce APC, the gunmen shot at him from a close range. And as the deceased lied in his pool of blood, the assailants used cutlasses to dismember his body before leaving his residence.

The source explained that petrified members of Osia’s family in Egbada community which is a few kilometers away from ONELGA headquarters, Omoku, made efforts to reach security agents to come to their rescue to no avail.

This killing took place despite an indefinite dusk to dawn curfew imposed on ONELGA Saturday by the chairman, Austin Ahiamadu.

Amid the growing concerns about the safety of life and property in the council, the Divisional Police in Okwuzi has been mandated to oversee Omoku Divisional Police due to the incompetence of the policemen in the area to stem the killings in communities within the division.

ONELGA chairman, Ahiamadu told The Guardian, that it was regrettable that despite the killing of over 50 persons mainly APC members in recent times, both the police and the Joint Task Force deployed in the area have not arrested a single perpetrator for the killings. He said this has fuelled suspicion that the security might have been compromised.

He explained that those behind the killings primarily want to weaken the APC in ONELGA through intimidation. According to him, the culprits involved in the killings and their sponsors are known but regretted that the Police has failed to act.

“The DPO in Omoku has been so incompetent. If you watch the rate of crime since he came to Omoku, it has been on the rise, which means he is not effective. Last time, he went on course.