NBA gives police, Enugu gov’t 48 hours to arrest killers of Labour Party senatorial candidate, Oyibo
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), has given the Nigeria Police Force and the Enugu State Government 48 hours to fish out the sponsors and killers of former chairman and the Labour Party Senatorial candidate for Enugu East Senatorial district, Elder Oyibo Chukwu.
Recall that gunmen suspected to be members of the Eastern Security Network (ESN)/Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on Wednesday night shot and killed Elder Chukwu and other occupants of his vehicle and set them ablaze.
Oyibo Chukwu was the former chairman of Oji-River Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association between 2017 and 2019.
Reacting to his gruesome killing at a press conference, held on Thursday, at Enugu High Court complex, the NBA State Branch described his gruesome murder as unacceptable and suspected that it was politically motivated.
The Chairman of the NBA Oji-River Branch, Seth Nwokolo said that they (NBA members) were pained by the shocking news of the assassination of Chukwu and his supporters.
“We woke up this morning and greeted with the news of the gruesome murder of a very senior lawyer, a former Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association Oji-River Branch, Elder Oyibo Chukwu, who incidentally is a candidate for a Senatorial position in Enugu East Senatorial zone.
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“He is the candidate for the Labor Party and just this morning the news filtered in that he was gruesomely murdered with himself and other of his friends and supporters around Obeagu – Amechi-Awkunanaw road in Enugu South Local Government Area. We are pained with this news. We want to make it very categorical to the authorities – the Commissioner of Police in Enugu and the Enugu State Government to ensure that the killers, the perpetrators of this very heinous crime, taken live out of someone should be brought to book.
“We are giving them 48 hours to ensure that the killers of Elder Oyibo Chukwu are brought to book. The Bar in Enugu is very bitter with this development.”
On what action the NBA would take after the 48hr ultimatum elapsed without his killers brought to book, Nwokolo maintained that as lawyers they would take every necessary action under the law to get justice for him and his immediate family.
“We will take a very necessary step as legal practitioners – we are law abiding. As of today we have boycotted court proceedings. The courts in Enugu are not sitting even though they started, but when this news came in and they were informed, many of them rose because an injury to one is an injury to all.”
On whether Enugu State is back to the era of killing Squad, the NBA Chairman said “what I know is that the death of Elder Oyibo Chukwu is politically motivated. That is what we can say at this point even though investigation has not commenced but at the due time we will be able to know who and who were behind this death.”
Also speaking, the chairman of NBA Enugu Branch, Chief Charles Nwagbara, lamented the killing noting that insecurity in Enugu State had been left over the time loosed which according to him got killers and criminals emboldened.
“Now they are trying to discourage us from having our elections. I want to call well-meaning citizens of Enugu State and Nigerian in general that we should not be dampened. We should rise to this occasion and ensure that the people we do not know don’t control us.”
On his part, the chairman of NBA Ezeagu Branch, Chijioke Eze, said that the killing of Oyibo Chukwu did not speak well of the electoral process.
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