Igbo Youth Leaders Condemn Attack On Coalition Of United Political Parties, CUPP Spokesman, Seeks Arrest Of Deadly Assailants

A Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL) has condemned the vicious attack on the Akokwa country home of the spokesperson for the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), Ikenga Ugochinyere, where four people including his uncle were reportedly killed.

Several properties worth millions of naira were destroyed during the attack.

Akokwa is in Ideato North local government area of Imo state, South-east Nigeria.

SaharaReporters had reported that the residence of Ugochinyere was attacked on Saturday, by yet-to-be-identified gunmen. The assailants burnt down his house and so many vehicles parked in the compound.

They also killed his uncle and three other persons including one of his security guards. Several others were injured.

A source in the area said the gunmen came in large numbers but were engaged in a fierce gun battle with Ugochinyere’s police escorts.

A video seen by SaharaReporters shows that some other houses beside Ugochinyere’s residence were also razed during the brutal attack.

But reacting to the attack in a statement on Sunday, COSEYL called on the Inspector General of Police to ensure that all the people involved in the killing and arson must be arrested and brought to justice irrespective of who sponsored them.

The group also warned the police not to handle the matter the way the investigation into the killing of former presidential aide, Ahmed Gulak, was handled. It noted that Gulak’s ‘killers’ were arrested several times after just to cover up for the brains behind his gruesome murder.

In the statement signed by its President General, Goodluck Ibem, COSEYL said it received with rude shock and utter dismay the attack and assassination attempt on Ugochinyere life, lamenting that Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari has turned to a lawless country where people’s lives do not matter again.

It said, “We condemn in strongest terms the assassination of the victims who did nothing wrong to be sent to their early grave. When did participating in campaigns and the electoral process become a crime in Nigeria?

“The last time we checked in our constitution, there is nowhere we saw that a Nigerian should be assassinated if he dares participate in the electoral process. Nigeria has turned to a lawless country where people’s lives do not matter under President Muhammadu Buhari. Too sad!”

The group described it as surprising that in a democracy where freedom of speech and expression are guaranteed the CUPP spokesperson and the Peoples Democratic Party candidate for Ideato North and South Federal Constituency would be marked for assassination because he sometimes exposed the electoral manipulation and rigging strategy of the ruling party All Progressives Congress.

“We warn those killers and their sponsors who came to assassinate Barr. Ugochinyere who has always stood firm to defend our hard-earned democracy to have a rethink because if any harm should befall him, there will be a corresponding response from the Nigerian youths.

“The youths have woken from their slumber to take back their country and we will not be stopped by any antics of anti-democratic forces who have held our nation down.

“We call on the CUPP spokesperson to stand firm for our democracy and should not be discouraged because the youths are solidly behind him and his vision to defend our hard-earned democracy which our founding fathers fought so hard to achieve.”

“We call on the Inspector General of Police, IGP Usman Baba, the DSS (Department of State Services) and other security agencies to immediately move into action to arrest and prosecute those assassins who came to assassinate the people’s voice Barr Ikenga Ugochinyere and ended up killing three innocent persons who did nothing wrong to deserve such barbaric death,” the statement added.

Source:- Sahara Reporters