Dr Chike Akunyili, the husband of the late former minister of Information and director general of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Prof. Dora Akunyili has been gruesomely murdered.
Dr Akunyili was reportedly shot dead on Tuesday evening with seven others at Nkpor in the Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State.
An eyewitness, narrated “The killers attacked him (Akunyili) when they spotted a policeman in his car. Maybe they felt threatened when they sighted his police orderly. So, they killed him, the orderly and his driver. They took him to be a politician.
The witness said as they were shooting Akunyili and others, they were shouting, “No “election” in Anambra in November.
The state Police Command confirmed the murder of Dr Akunyili, in a statement by the state Police Public Relations Officer, Ikenga Tochukwu.
Tochukwu said Chike was killed at Afor Nkpor in the Idemili North Local Government Area.
A statement issued by Anambra police command reads “The Commissioner of Police, Anambra State Command, Tony Olofu, has observed with grave concern the series of security breaches that have taken place within the state, and has therefore ordered tactical commanders of the Command to immediately put an end to the madness.
“He gave this order when he led senior police officers from the command on an on-the-spot assessment of the crime scenes.”
Some of those killed were headless, says ex-gov
Meanwhile, a former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, expressed shock at the death of Akunyili.
Obi, who spoke to journalists at Akunyili’s Agulu home town in a joint press conference with the monarch of the town, Igwe Innocent Obodoakor, said, “I was lucky to get the first flight, and I landed in Owerri and moved straight to Iyienu Hospital in Onitsha, where his (Akunyili’s) son and I identified him in the mortuary.
“He was not the only victim; there was his driver and police security aide. About nine people in all were involved in the shooting on Tuesday, and some of them were headless, and it is now a problem identifying them.”
Meanwhile, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, also expressed shock over the death of Dr Akunyili and equally condemned the gruesome murder.
The group through it’s spokesman, Alex Ogbonnia appealed to security agencies to bring the culprits to book.
Reacting to he tragedy, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the November poll in the state, Dr Andy Uba, asked the state Governor, Willy Obiano, to “shake off his lethargy and frontally confront the worsening insecurity in the state.
A statement by his director of Media and Publicity, Afam Uba, read, “Obiano is not only fiddling, while Anambra is burning, but is clearly absent from duty.
“Only two days ago, we had cause to cry out over the spate of violence unleashed on our dear state, but little did we know that the situation would degenerate into the current state of anomie that we live in.”
Meanwhile, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has denied any involvement in the killing.
The Media and Publicity Secretary of the roup, Emma Powerful, said in a statement, “We wish to dissociate ourselves from the senseless killing of innocent citizens in Anambra State.
