Outside the core Northern states where the Boko Haram insurgency is
taking its heavy toll on human lives, Enugu,the former capital of
Eastern Nigeria, is fast wearing the undeserved toga of ‘killer field’,
with the rising figures of mysterious murders in the serene coal city
and its environs.
While Boko Haram killers are fighting for identified religious cause, those engaged in killing prominent people in Enugu State are yet to make known their reasons.
So far, they have succeeded in turning the once hospitable coal city into Thomas Hobbes’ state of Leviathan “where life is solitary, nasty, brutish and short”. The terrible state of insecurity in the state is more pronounced in the university town of Nsukka, about 45 minutes drive from the capital city.
So far, no fewer than five brutal killings of innocent citizens have taken place in the state in the past six months. While the killings continued, the state government remained unconcerned not until the latest gruesome murder of a serving Police Commissioner who happens to come from the state.
Mr. Chinwike Asadu, the Police Commissioner in Kwara State was
brutally killed by yet-to-be identified gun men who waylaid him and his
orderly as he was driving into his private residence in Enugu. The
amiable, unassuming and extraordinarily gentle police boss, who had
barely a month to retire from the force after serving meritoriously for
35 years, was in Enugu to see members of his family when he was mowed
down by the assassins bullets.
Few weeks before this incident which sent shock waves all over the country and beyond, the university town of Nsukka had recorded harvests of gruesome killings of some of its prominent indigenes in very bizarre and despicable manners.
It started with a Financial Economist Ogbo Edoga,56, based in United States of America, who was shot dead in his hometown, Aku, Igbo-Etiti Local Government area of the state, just few days to the official launching of a project he started with his colleagues overseas.
They came home to open a medical diagnostic centre for the impoverished masses when three gun men accosted him in front of the house of one of his in laws and shot him dead with an AK47 assault rifle. The daredevil gunmen escaped with his personal effects including N200,000.00, cash abandoning their vehicle.
The Christmas tragedy which reverberated through the length and breath of the state and beyond shortly, has so far remained a mystery as the police have not come up with any clue on his killers. Family members of the deceased alleged that rather, the police in the area ended up making volatile and provocative conclusions which left every discerning mind with the impression that there were more to the killing of the young man.
Barely a month later, another mind-boggling tragedy occurred. This time around, it took place right inside the university town. A prominent human rights activist and politician cum Journalist, Christopher Ejike Onah, 52, was brutally hacked to death by some youths numbering up to 20 in front of his residence in Agbani village.
Luckily, the initial police inactivity and nonchalance in the area was punctuated when members of his family hastily protested to the Police Public Relations Officer in Enugu who swiftly took up the matter and contacted his commissioner.
The case was quickly transferred to the police headquarters and the team of policemen assigned to it did not waste time in making startling discoveries and arrests. However, in spite of this positive move by the police, many are disturbed that extra efforts are not being made to round up the perpetrators of this evil who were said to be up to 20.
While residents of the state are still living in fear following these killings, police authorities seem not to have taken up the gauntlet and braced up to the realities on ground. Perhaps, that may have influenced the latest changes in the leadership of the force in the state from the Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Abubakar, whom sources said had since given them matching orders to fish our the killer-squad that has been ravaging the state and its environs.
The latest killing of a serving police commissioner will, no doubt, rekindle the resolve by police authorities in Abuja to make their men in Enugu swing into action with a view to bringing these devilish killers to book without delay.
Happily, it has also jolted the state government into action as Governor Chime who struggled to control tears while visiting the family of the slain police boss, not only pledged N10m reward for information that will lead to rounding up the vicious gang that is on the loose in the state, but promised to release more patrol vans to the police to ensure adequate security.
While Boko Haram killers are fighting for identified religious cause, those engaged in killing prominent people in Enugu State are yet to make known their reasons.
So far, they have succeeded in turning the once hospitable coal city into Thomas Hobbes’ state of Leviathan “where life is solitary, nasty, brutish and short”. The terrible state of insecurity in the state is more pronounced in the university town of Nsukka, about 45 minutes drive from the capital city.
So far, no fewer than five brutal killings of innocent citizens have taken place in the state in the past six months. While the killings continued, the state government remained unconcerned not until the latest gruesome murder of a serving Police Commissioner who happens to come from the state.
Late Kwara State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Chinwike Asadu
Few weeks before this incident which sent shock waves all over the country and beyond, the university town of Nsukka had recorded harvests of gruesome killings of some of its prominent indigenes in very bizarre and despicable manners.
It started with a Financial Economist Ogbo Edoga,56, based in United States of America, who was shot dead in his hometown, Aku, Igbo-Etiti Local Government area of the state, just few days to the official launching of a project he started with his colleagues overseas.
They came home to open a medical diagnostic centre for the impoverished masses when three gun men accosted him in front of the house of one of his in laws and shot him dead with an AK47 assault rifle. The daredevil gunmen escaped with his personal effects including N200,000.00, cash abandoning their vehicle.
The Christmas tragedy which reverberated through the length and breath of the state and beyond shortly, has so far remained a mystery as the police have not come up with any clue on his killers. Family members of the deceased alleged that rather, the police in the area ended up making volatile and provocative conclusions which left every discerning mind with the impression that there were more to the killing of the young man.
Barely a month later, another mind-boggling tragedy occurred. This time around, it took place right inside the university town. A prominent human rights activist and politician cum Journalist, Christopher Ejike Onah, 52, was brutally hacked to death by some youths numbering up to 20 in front of his residence in Agbani village.
Luckily, the initial police inactivity and nonchalance in the area was punctuated when members of his family hastily protested to the Police Public Relations Officer in Enugu who swiftly took up the matter and contacted his commissioner.
The case was quickly transferred to the police headquarters and the team of policemen assigned to it did not waste time in making startling discoveries and arrests. However, in spite of this positive move by the police, many are disturbed that extra efforts are not being made to round up the perpetrators of this evil who were said to be up to 20.
While residents of the state are still living in fear following these killings, police authorities seem not to have taken up the gauntlet and braced up to the realities on ground. Perhaps, that may have influenced the latest changes in the leadership of the force in the state from the Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Abubakar, whom sources said had since given them matching orders to fish our the killer-squad that has been ravaging the state and its environs.
The latest killing of a serving police commissioner will, no doubt, rekindle the resolve by police authorities in Abuja to make their men in Enugu swing into action with a view to bringing these devilish killers to book without delay.
Happily, it has also jolted the state government into action as Governor Chime who struggled to control tears while visiting the family of the slain police boss, not only pledged N10m reward for information that will lead to rounding up the vicious gang that is on the loose in the state, but promised to release more patrol vans to the police to ensure adequate security.
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