Gunmen shot dead a retired military officer and Governor Hope Uzodimma’s kinsman, Capt. Tony Enoch.
By Emma Ogbuehi
Fear and uncertainty reigned in Omuma, Oru East local council area of Imo State, Tuesday evening, when unknown gunmen shot dead a retired military officer and Governor Hope Uzodimma’s kinsman, Capt. Tony Enoch.
According to a report in the Vanguard newspaper, Enoch, who was also the Presidential Campaign Council Chairman for the Ahmed Bola Tinubu/Kashim Shettima election in the local government area, was shot on his way home, from the All Progressives Congress (APC) stakeholders meeting, held at the local council headquarters, Omuma.
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It was gathered that the APC chieftain was ambushed by the armed hoodlums on his way home and shot dead.
His lifeless body was thereafter forced into the boot of his car and abandoned at a point close to Awo-Omama Technical College.
On how the body was found, a villager, who spoke on strict grounds of anonymity, said: “Somebody who was passing close to the abandoned vehicle was attracted to the blood oozing out from the booth of the car and promptly raised the alarm.
“The alarm, which attracted a good number of people to the scene, thereafter, snowballed into confusion, apprehension and mourning.”
Since the conclusion of the 2023 elections, the spate of insecurity in Imo is gradually rising. In April, gunmen killed five police officers in Ulakwo, a community in Ngor Okpala Local Government Area of the state.
The slain officers were reportedly driving from a neighbouring community in Aboh Mbaise Local Government Area of the state and later stopped by at a junction in the Ngor Okpala Council Area to eat in a local restaurant.
The gunmen, it was gathered, immediately drove to the area and opened fire on the officers, killing three of them on the spot.
Two of the officers, who initially escaped with gunshot injuries and ran to a nearby shop for safety, were traced and also killed by the gunmen.
Apart from the slain officers, the couple who own the shop were also killed by the attackers. The couple have been identified as Mr. and Mrs. Chinaka Nwagu.
Governor Uzodimma had earlier in January accused politicians of being behind the killings in the state.