Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
The Commissioner of Police in charge of election duties in Rivers State Command, Mr. Echeng Echeng has ordered for an investigation into the killing of a campaign Director General of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ahoada West local government area of the state.
The victim, Chiosom Lennard, a native of Ahoada who is also the Ward 10 leader of APC in the area, was shot while trying to prevent suspected hoodlums from hijacking election materials on Saturday.
The spokesperson of the APC in the state, Darlington Nwauju, who spoke to THISDAY on the incident, said Lennard served the party as Caretaker Chairman in his LGA and until his death was leader of APC in Ward 10 and Campaign Coordinator of their Governorship campaign in the area.
Nwauju revealed that the killed party DG left behind two children and a nursing wife. “He left behind his two kids and wife still nursing a one-month old baby. I am ashamed that the party I belong to could not bequeath a legacy of free and fair elections to Nigerians.
“Rivers State has always been a flash point but President Muhammadu Buhari did nothing to secure voters to freely elect their leaders.
“How can you have an election where people were being flogged, abducted and killed and you call that an election? The violence and nauseating malpractices supervised by the Police and INEC delegitimises the validity of the elections.”
Meanwhile, in a statement made available to THISDAY in Port Harcourt yesterday, the state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Grace Iringe-Koko said the Commissioner of Police has vowed to bring the perpetrators to book.
Iringe-Koko said: “The Commissioner of Police in charge of the Election duties in Rivers State Command, CP Echeng Echeng has tasked operatives of the Command to deploy all necessary human and investigative assets to ensure that the killers of the Campaign Director-General for the All Progressives Congress in Ahoada West in Rivers State, Hon. Chisom Lenard, are brought to book.
“From information gathered, the Campaign DG was shot by yet to be identified gunmen in the afternoon of Saturday 18th March, 2023.”
She added that, “the Commissioner of Police commiserate with family of the bereaved and has promised to bring perpetrators of such heinous crime to justice.”
Also, one Julius Akoi, an ad hoc staff of INEC was killed by alleged thugs in Abua/ Odual LGA during the Saturday election.
