By Ade Martins-
A Nigerian politician vying for an electoral position as a candidate for the Labour Party House of Assembly for Onuimo State Constituency has been murdered by assassins over the weekend.
Mr Christopher Elehu was assassinated by unidentified gunmen, believed to be hired assassins who sprayed him with bullets until he died.
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The suspects, who struck in the early hours of Friday morning, also set his home on fire and destroyed his property, including a motorcycle.
The heartless brutes continued shooting for up to 2 hours, and reportedly sought other politicians residing in the area, who were not at home during the attack. Locals express conviction that the men were put on a pay roll to end the politicians life.
The shocking news was revealed by Labour party Chairman Chief Ambrose Onyekwere to the Nigerian Tribune in Owerri Saturday.
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Chief Onyekewere explained that the Labour Party candidate was assassinated in his house, adding that his corpse was laying on the floor with matchet cuts when villagers gathered in the morning.
The killing of the politician came just ten days after the Labour party candidate in a sister LGA, Okigwe, Chukwunonye Irouno, died suddenly.
Irouno who was to assist in the launching of the Labour Party’s presidential campaign rally was rushed to Federal Medical Center in Owerri where he was pronounced dead.
Notorious
Elections in Africa’s most populous country are notorious for assassinations from rival contenders during election time, who are either threatened by their opponents or seething in grudges for various reasons.
Assassinations in Nigeria are nothing new, but have not been as rampant as in the last few elections, as they were in previous years.
They are usually not very widespread in each election, but bloodshed in the name of power is still a big cancer that stains the integrity of elections in the West African nation.
Assassinations leads to sorrow of the victim’s well wishers, but for the greedy aspirant or their backers, it is a route to drunken power and limitless wealth at the expense of the people.
Unlike the West where every murder is treated with seriousness with an investigation to follow, assassinations during the build up to elections are not given the level of investigative seriousness they deserve.
Those to conduct such investigations are themselves scared of reprisals, and are easily bought over by the wealth of greedy faceless politicians, who shamelessly hide in the shadows while committing these atrocities with impunity.
Vote buying and ballot snatching are just one of the few shameful mechanisms used by morally disreputable individuals to try and win elections for self gain.
With the country’s elections just a few months away, many parties have been embroiled in court cases disputing the process of selection for its chosen representatives, and alleging fraud.
Last year, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime revealed in its 2021 Global Assassination Monitor that 184 politicians and high profile individuals were assassinated between 2019 and 2020.
Last year, a Nigerian politician was also killed by bandits while on the road between two northern cities, one of his colleagues said on Wednesday, while a state governor’s convoy came under fire in a separate incident that left three police officers injured.
In 2021,Ahmad Ahmad, a member of the state house of assembly in northwestern Zamfara state, was killed in a rural area as he was driving from the state capital Gusau to the city of Kano, in another state.
He was killed by bandits while on the road between two northern cities, one of his colleagues said on Wednesday, while a state governor’s convoy came under fire in a separate incident that left three police officers injured.
Again last year, Kano state Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje’s convoy came under fire while driving back from Zamfara, according to Muhammad Garba, the state’s commissioner for information.
The quest for power in Nigeria where a large percentage of its citizens are impoverished due to rising employment and inflation has seen many of its leader compete very hard for power over the decades, delivery very little in the way of improvement.
Insecurity is one of Nigeria’s greatest challenges, as the country braces itself for one of the its most fiercely contested elections in recent times with takes very high.
Apart from the growing level of terrorism in the country, the fear of hoodlums and thuggery being used to secure fake results is high on the mind of the electorate en large.
Nigeria’s president, Mohammadu Buhari promise of fair and credible elections to Nigerians is still heavily doubted by many who believe Nigeria’s many corrupt politicians will attempt to circumvent the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the election, which is expected to guarantee the degree of fairness expected by Nigerian citizens.
With campaigning still in its infant stages, there are fears among the populace about how many more needless bloodshed is likely to accompany these elections.
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