By Magnus Aluma
The All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Ebonyi State Chapter has condemned the serial attacks on its Gubernatorial candidate in the state, Prof. Bernard Ifeanyi Odoh.
A statement issued on Saturday by the Ebonyi State Publicity Secretary of the party, Hon. Chibuike Nwanchor and made available to newsmen in Abakaliki, alleged that the attack was masterminded by the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The statement called on the Inspector-General of Police, the Ebonyi State Commissioner of Police and other security agencies in the state, to immediately investigate the incident and arrest the perpetrators. APGA urged the concerned authorities to call the Ebonyi State APC to order to avoid further breakdown of law and order, adding that election must not be won by violence.
NewsBits gathered that the latest attack on Odoh’s convoy at Okposi in the Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, which took the lives of his driver and a police officer attached to him, was the third in the series of attacks on the APGA guber candidate in the state.
According to the statement, “there were clear evidence of the incident as their Sienna buses which were branded with the APC Governorship Candidate, Hon. Francis Nwifuru were captured by our cameras, with video clips of the ugly incident.”
It also called on the people of the state to be wary of possible plot by the APC and the Ebonyi State Government, to throw the state into chaos, alleging that the rulling party was already “jittery over possible defeat in the forthcoming election.”
The statement further stated: “We wish to call Ebonyi APC to order as the party has become jittery over their impending loss in the forthcoming elections and has decided to use the instrument of violence to truncate the elections. It has not been up to two weeks after they ambushed Prof. Odoh, fired bullets to kill him but succeeded in killing his driver and one other security personnel attached to him while others sustained various degrees of injuries.”
Hon. Nwanchor emphasized that APGA in Ebonyi State is a law-abiding party which “believes in the rights of the people to freely choose their leaders democratically, without fear of any form of molestation.” Recall that in August last year, Prof Odoh’s campaign team was attacked shortly after a rally at Iboko, in the Izzi Local Government Area, while a similar incident also took place early this year, in the Ishielu Local Government Area of the state.
