Udora Orizu in Abuja
The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has raised the alarm over an alleged attempt to assassinate its First National Spokesperson, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere.
In a statement issued yesterday by the coalition’s Second National Spokesperson, Mark Adebayo, CUPP said: “On Friday night as at about 8 p.m, while driving home from a strategy meeting of the opposition, their 1st National Spokesperson, Ugochinyere noticed a vehicle trailing him
immediately he left Wuse II branch of H-Medix where he went to buy some personal needs.”
According to Adebayo, “not being sure and to confirm his suspicion, he quickly went down the popular Zone 4 Bridge and the vehicle continued following. He also joined the express to Area 1, having descended the
Mabushi Bridge and the vehicle continued to follow.”
“To make double sure they were not just two vehicles coincidentally heading the same direction, he accelerated, being that he was driving a fast moving car only to notice that the vehicle, a dark coloured
Hilux pickup van also accelerated. On taking the turn off just before the stadium so that he could join the road to the airport road, he also observed that the van made the same turn.”
Explaining further, he said, Ugochinyere also accelerated when he was going round the stadium as the stretch of that road was very dark, vehicle gave a chase but could not catch up.
“When he had joined the airport road he drove till he got to a section of the road where the street lights were full and rolled down his tinted side screen and pretended to slow down to see if the vehicle will pass.”
“However to his greatest shock, as the pickup approached, it tried to swerve and double-cross him. He averted it but noticed that there were at least four persons in the van bearing arms similar to the unique
ones carried by officers of the Department of State Services (DSS). One of them opened the door and
made attempt to jump down but Ikenga swerved quickly and drove off, while they gave another chase and were almost by his side with their guns pointed when he joined the service lane and they could not swerve
quickly enough to join that lane and he made a quick U-turn and drove against traffic towards the City Centre.”
The coalition alleged that the armed men fired off two quick shots but to the grace of God, Ikenga was not hit.
Adebayo also said that on January 28, 2019 during a rally at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) headquarters in Abuja to protest against the removal of Justice
Walter Onnoghen as the Chief Justice of Nigeria, some persons disguised as thugs who had come as anti-Onnoghen/pro-government protesters had threatened him that very soon nobody would hear his voice again as acid would be poured into his mouth with which he
criticises the government.
“These people who were also armed were for some inexplicable reasons not arrested by the police officers deployed that day at the NBA Secretariat despite the fact they clearly saw them with the guns. This pointed to the suspicion then that they may be security personnel deployed to work with the anti-Onnoghen/pro government protesters,” he said.
He noted that the alleged attack is a vindication on the position of the opposition that the government is violent, prone to blood-letting and has no limit or red line.
“Human life is not sacred to them, security of lives and property is not a duty for them, privacy of a citizens home is not out of limits for them,” He lamented
The coalition called on the Presidency to categorically call on its security personnel to discontinue all plots to hurt any opposition voice as any further attacks will be resisted and reactions will be different.
“The lives of all opposition leaders are still the responsibility of the government to protect and that we shall not fail to hold the government responsible if for any reason the life of any opposition leader is lost in mysterious circumstances.”
