The chairman of the Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Kogi, Bishop John Ibenu, escaped assassination just like Chief Gabriel Aduku, a former health minister from the state, the two have said in separate explanations. Ibenu said it was a narrow escape as the unknown gunmen attacked him and riddled his car with bullets. The Nigerian Tribune reports that Ibenu who spoke in Lokoja on Thursday, January 18, said he was returning from his village in the eastern part of the state at about 5.30 pm on Sunday when he was attacked.
He claimed that the seven men suspected to be from the northern part of the country ambushed him along Ojodu in Ofu Local Government Area and open fire on his vehicle from both sides of the road. Ibenu said the gunmen were armed with AK47 rifles, but he was only able to escape from the scene to a nearby village with God grace. Also, Aduku, the report said, was allegedly attacked by some gunmen men at his country home in Anyigba, Dekina local government area of the state. A statement from the minister reported by ThisDay, said: “The hoodlums in their twenties were six in number and were uninformed. Three stayed outside while two of them masked entered his sitting room through his kitchen. “One of them carried a pump action rifle while the other two had pistols which they pointed at his head and informed him they were sent from Abuja to pick him for questioning.
“He refused to accompany them despite their physically trying to bundle him out as he insisted he would rather die within his compound if need be. “We want to state that the signature of the perpetrators of this crime is not unambiguous. “We have a very good idea of those behind the shameless and cowardly act. That the attack came a few weeks after the Kogi East Elders’ Council addressed a press conference in Abuja which was replied by a group who were so cowardly that they neither included their names and addresses in the rejoinder which they published in three national newspapers is a pointer.
“It is obvious that since the hoodlums and their paymasters could not controvert the facts and kernel of our press conference which centred on the unmitigated misgovernance of Kogi state, rather than tow the path of moral rectitude, they have resorted to crude intimidation of elders old enough to be their fathers and grandfathers. “We will therefore not be intimidated or cowered by mannerless hoodlums whose stock-in-trade is gangsterism and terrorism.” At the time of this report, the police was yet to confirm the incident.Naij.com