Following the failed assassination attempt on the Managing Director
of Young Shall Grow Motors Limited, Chief Vincent Obianodo, and the
rising crime rate in FESTAC Town, Lagos, southwest Nigeria, residents,
mainly of Igbo descent, are planning to stage a peaceful protest this
weekend.
Gunmen believed to be assassins recently blocked
Obianodo’s Lexus Sports Utility Vehicle, SUV, in FESTAC, and tried to
assassinate him.
The suspected assassins riddled Obianodo’s SUV
with bullets, killing his driver and a female police orderly, while
Obianodo, who narrowly escaped death, was injured in the arm and has
been flown abroad for treatment.
The gruesome attack has prompted
the residents to lose faith in the ability of the police in FESTAC to
protect them, because they said this was one gruesome attack too many.
The
residents are planning the peaceful protest against the backdrop of the
incessant security challenges in FESTAC Town and its environs, while
calling on the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar to nip it
in the bud before it gets out of hand.
Some of the residents
alleged that it was the same vehicle that a special squad from the Area
‘E’ Command uses for their operations that was used in kidnapping an
Igbo chief recently and it was the same vehicle that was also used in
the failed assassination attempt on Obianodo.
The Igbos made up of businessmen said it is high time they cried out before the crime rate escalated.
Leading the proposed peaceful protest is a close associate of Obianodo, who wants to remain anonymous.
He
accused the police of being culpable in the failed assassination
attempt, adding “the families of Chief (Obianodo) have continued to ask
questions why the police did not respond swiftly when they heard
sporadic shootings on the night he was attacked.”
Expected among
the protesters is Chukwuma Nwokeoma, a business tycoon, who opined that
there is more to the failed assassination attempt on Obianodo than
meets the eye.
“The police have stopped me times without number
with a particular car but since the attack on chief, that car has
suddenly disappeared.
Concerned authorities should please ask the police
where the said car is. I am raising this question now before they
finish killing us all,” said Nwokeoma, who hails from Neni, Anambra
State, the same village as Obianodo.
Nwokeoma added that they are
already mobilising Igbos in FESTAC ahead of the peaceful protest while
calling on the State Security Service, SSS, to take over the
investigation into the failed assassination attempt.
Meanwhile, families of Bianodo also want the case to be transferred, having lost confidence in the police there.
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