Nigeria: Deaths Mar Campaign Rallies in Five States

Seriki Adinoyi, Emeka Osondu, Adibe Emenyonu And Saka Ibrahim

22 March 2011

Jos/Awka/Benin City/Kebbi — Less than two weeks to next month’s general election in the country, the nation’s political climate Monday witnessed a harvest of deaths as campaign rallies in Jos, Plateau State; Onitsha and Awka in Anambra State; Kebbi and Benue States resulted in a cumulative loss of 10 lives. A number of persons also sustained injuries while property worth millions of naira were destroyed.

The Jos episode began when supporters of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) went berserk as they came out to receive the party’s presidential candidate, Maj-General Mohammadu Buhari (rtd.), who was in the state on a campaign rally.

The CPC supporters’ unruly action culminated in a stampede leading to the death of three of them along Enugu Street, while another corpse was found near the Bingham University Teaching Hospital in the centre of the city.

Several others, who sustained injuries, were taken to OLA Catholic Hospital. But the state police command denied the casualty figure.

The CPC supporters, who defied security warning, took to the streets of Jos disrupting vehicular movement and smashing vehicles and setting some ablaze in the process. Business activities were paralysed as business owners shut their shops and fled.

Riot policemen and the military Special Task Force (STF) also joined forces to repel them.

Buhari, who arrived at noon, addressed the rally at Hassan Katsina Polo Field for only 15 minutes and promised to tackle the incessant crises in Plateau State if voted into power.

Buhari also paid a visit to Governor Jonah Jang.

Responding, Jang cautioned politicians in the country to always call their supporters to order to ensure good atmosphere while campaigning or carrying out their rallies.

In Anambra State, a clash between traders in Onitsha and Awka in campaign rallies of Chris Ngige and Annie Okonkwo, which turned bloody, left two of the traders dead.

Trouble started in Onitsha Main Market at 9am when the traders refused the Anambra Central senatorial candidate of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Dr. Chris Ngige, entry into the market for his campaign.

THISDAY learnt that the crowd of traders said they did not want the disruption of trading in their market and appealed to Ngige to leave the market.

When Ngige attempted to forcibly access the venue, the traders resisted and started pelting him with sachet water and urine wrapped in cellophane bags, insisting that Anambra people would not compromise on the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

When the pressure was too much and the traders were closing up on Ngige, his security detail started shooting into the air and suddenly a stray bullet hit one of the traders, who was taken to an undisclosed hospital where he was said to have died.

Contacted on the development, Chairman of Anambra Market Amalgamated Traders Association (AMATA), Chief Okwudili Ezenwankwor, confirmed the development and said he received a call from the Chairman of Onitsha Main Market, Chief Nnedu Unobuagha, who told him that there was problem in the market.

“When I got there, it was obvious that traders did not want to see or receive Dr. Chris Ngige. My advice was that if you visit somebody and the household were in 100 per cent agreement that they will not see you, the wise thing to do is to beat a retreat and go and do your homework very well,” he said.

Also, the campaign rally of the candidate of the Anambra Central senatorial district of Accord Party (AC), Senator Okonkwo, two hours later at the Awka Market turned sour when the traders refused him entry into the market.

It was gathered that when the situation became tense, security men attached to Okonkwor shot sporadically into the air and killed one of the traders.

THISDAY investigations revealed that the traders met and decided that they would only support APGA candidates. They said anybody telling them to vote for another party wants to sell the Igbos as the only get-well message they would give to Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu at this time was to vote APGA 100 per cent.

In another development, the senator representing Edo South in the Senate, Ehigie Uzamere, yesterday escaped death, but his police orderly was not that lucky as he was shot dead by unknown gunmen suspected to be assassins.

Narrating the incident to newsmen in Benin City, Uzamere, who is also the Edo State ACN candidate for the zone, said between 7.30 – 8.00pm at Zabayo Street, two vehicles tried to overtake the vehicle in one of his convoy and all of a sudden he heard gunshots.

In the process, according to him, his police orderly, Mr. Onyechi, was gunned down, while his driver identified as Mohammed, was shot on the hip.

He said one of the suspected assassins could not escape as one of the policemen attached to him shot him, adding that the two bodies – that of his orderly and one of the suspected assassins – had been deposited at the mortuary.

In Kebbi State, thugs suspected to be working for one of the political parties on Sunday evening attacked the former governor of the state, Alhaji Adamu Aliero, and the CPC governorship candidate, Alhaji Abubakar Malam, who were on their way to Dakingari, the hometown of Governor Sa’idu Dakingari, to campaign.

In the attack, one person was killed, eight vehicles including two SUVs were burnt and two houses were set ablaze by the thugs.

THISDAY learnt that the CPC convoy was attacked when Aliero and others were returning from Aljannare where they had held their first rally at Suru Local Government area of the state.

The CPC rally was eventually cancelled when it was glaring that the thugs were desperate to cause mayhem in the area.

The special adviser to the governorship candidate, Alhaji Abdullahi Zuru, said the campaign at Dakingari was approved by the security agents and wondered why the thugs barricaded the road and attacked them.

Meanwhile, a clash between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the ACN supporters in Logo and Konshisha Local Government areas of Benue State has claimed a life, while property worth millions of naira were destroyed.

According to a source, crisis broke out at Tse-Agbaragba in Konshishsa Local Government area when suspected thugs loyal to the ACN stormed a gathering of PDP supporters in the town and started shooting sporadically.

According to him, the action of the ACN supporters created pandemonium leaving everyone scampering for safety while the armed group chased after one John Terver, who was alleged to be a leading supporter of the PDP in the area.

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