The Labour Party senatorial candidate in Enugu east, Oyibo Chukwu, and his personal assistant have been murdered by gunmen in the state on Wednesday.
The Enugu Police Command spokesman Daniel Ndukwu confirmed the development in an early Thursday statement.
He said the incident happened Wednesday when the assailants on a Hilux vehicle, attacked and set ablaze Chukwu’s campaign vehicle.
The spokesman said they “attacked and set ablaze the campaign vehicle of the Labour Party, at Eke-Otu Amechi-Awkunanaw Enugu, burning to death the Party’s Senatorial Candidate for Enugu East Senatorial District, Barr. Oyibo Chukwu (male) and his Personal Assistant (male) who was with him in the vehicle.
“However, the miscreants were repelled by security operatives while attempting to also attack the convoy of the Governorship Candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) at Eke, Agbani, Nkanu West LGA.”
During the attack, some members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were also murdered while the convoy of the All Progressive Congress (APC) governorship candidate for Enugu State Uche Nnaji was also affected.
“Preliminary investigations into the incidents show that the armed hoodlums, operating in a tricycle, attacked a PDP campaign Mini Bus at Topland by Ebony Paint Road, Amechi-Awkunanaw Enugu and used petrol bomb to set it ablaze, burning to death its driver, simply identified as one KC Great (male),” the statement added.
In the wake of the attack, the Enugu State Police Commissioner Ahmed Ammani who visited the scenes of the incidents has ordered an investigation into it.
The Commissioner, while strongly condemning the barbaric acts, has commiserated with the parties and family members of the deceased, vowing to ensure that the perpetrators are fished out and made to face the full wrath of the law,” Ndukwe added.
He quoted the Commissioner as reiterating the commitment of the police and other security agencies toward credible polls and called on the residents not to succumb to the “cowardly antics of the hoodlums” aimed at creating fear.
