By Chief Nicholas Okibe

At about 5:30 p.m on Sunday, 4th September, 2022 in Awgu Community, Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State, suspected gunmen struck and started shooting sporadically in the air. They purportedly dispersed an insignificant handful supporters of Labour Party (LP) holding meeting in the community.

This was contained in a video being widely circulated by the LP supporters and other opposition parties in the state. According to the chairman of the party in the council area, one Mr. Ikechukwu Igwebuike, no life was lost in the notorious shooting.

A forensic analysis of the video by ballistic experts, every firearm tells a story and that story is often collaborated with other material evidence; circumstantial, direct, etc, including the reports of eyewitnesses. The LP chairman, Mr. Igwebuike and his members have vividly collaborated the shooting by the gunmen.

The account given by the LP supporters who claimed the gunmen rode on four motorcycles and started shooting sporadically for minutes at the party members and in the air leave much to be desired. For alleged hooded gunmen wielding dangerous weapons to strike at the said party supporters without anybody sustaining gunshots wound despite the sporadic shootings and for the LP to give a first hand _chain-of-custody_ of the _gun crime_, gunmen and their traceability and continuity of evidence linking it to some people in the state calls for the good people of Enugu state to be worried about those hell-bent at sabotaging the laudable systemic security establishment of the state governor, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi over the past 7 years. The people alleging to know the shooters and their sponsors could have materially collated the spent bullets, casing and had a conversation with the gunmen. There’s a convincing link the public is demanding from those alleging what.

Since this incident, the LP and other opposition parties such as the All Progressives Grand Alliance (AGPA) have gone on air to claim that they knew those responsible for the attacks. The APGA members who were not at the _locus criminis_ had also claimed knowledge of the sponsors of the attacks. It’s time for the law enforcement agencies to do their work by inviting these people who claimed first hand information about the shooting and extract useful information from them that will lead to the arrest of the culprits, lest they be held responsible for orchestrating armed attacks in order to score political points by destabilizing the state.

For the avoidance of doubt, the press statement issued immediately after the shooting by the LP chairman of the council, Mr. Igwebuike confirmed his strong connection with the criminal gangs. According to him, “We believe strongly that this is the handiwork of the opposition party”. Igwebuike should not be allowed to go scot-free without adducing compelling evidence indicting the said opposition, lest he be treated as the primary suspect and be made to produce his accomplices. The police should not look away from this. All those responsible for the heinous crime of destabilizing the existing peace in the state must face the full weight of the law.

The efforts of Governor Ugwuanyi in ensuring a just, peaceful and secure environment for the people of the state is being tampered and sabotaged by some elements for political reasons. Scapegoat must be made out of them to deter future bellicosity.

The efforts of the state government and the security agencies must not be allowed to be dragged in the mud by desperate politicians in the state. For the past seven years, Enugu state has been adjudged the most peaceful, safest, secure state in the Southeast zone and this was not achieved out of sheer luck. It took sweat, human and material resources and many sleepless nights by the governor to give the people a state of their dreams. Mischief makers must not be allowed to destroy the state because of politics. Safety and security before politics. All the necessary personnel should deploy their machineries after the scoundrels sponsoring these criminal gangs.