Former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, whose campaign was breached by gunmen in his hometown of Isuofia, Anambra State, on Wednesday has relived the experience, as police arrested four new suspects.
Anambra police spokesman, DSP Toochukwu Ikenga, identified the suspects as Mbah Victor (30), John Olisakwe (21), Chigozie Omeh (20) and Emmanuel Nnobi ( 28).
Ikenga said:
The suspects confessed to have actively taken part in the attack and subsequent abduction of the Commissioner for Water and Public Utility, Mr Emeka Ezenwanne.
The arrests came as Soludo relived the attack in his hometown of Isuofia, in which three people died and Ezenwanne was kidnapped.
In an interview with Channels TV on Thursday night, Soludo said he was lucky to escape the assailants, who killed three of his police orderlies.
Soludo said:
We were having an interactive session and we finished the mass about 4pm and the scheduled interactive meeting with the Isuofia youths. By the way, Isuofia happened to be my hometown.
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I’m a village boy and this is where I feel safest anywhere in the world. I walk the street, I jog in my community, I take long walk, I am everywhere as a village boy.
With this interactive session, there were over a thousand youths seated and I was just making preliminary remarks to open up the interactive session with other dignitaries from the communities, commissioners and members of the house of assembly.
And just as I was about to wrap up and I said, ‘Finally!’ for them to open up for comments and answers, gunshots! At first, I thought may be the policemen were shooting in the air with the kind of exuberance in the hall until I began to hear people screaming and we all scampered for safety.
It took more than 10, 15 minutes of continuous gun battle. By the time we all came back, we saw three bodies there lying in the pool of their blood – they were the three policemen. May God grant their souls eternal rest. We will continue to pray and support their families.
I was totally unhurt, not in anyway hurt.
Soludo doubted whether the attack was linked with his aspiration to become Anambra governor.
He said:
I am friend with everybody contesting the office. I don’t think the office is worth the blood of even a chicken let alone a human being. I will be shocked that it was politically motivated and that it was aimed directly at me.
Soludo appealed to the kidnappers to release Ezenwanne in the spirit of Easter celebrations.
Meanwhile, the police said they had intensified efforts to rescue the commissioner.
The police had earlier confirmed the arrest of one suspect in the wake of the attack.
According to police spokesman, Ikenga:
Efforts are still ongoing to apprehend other fleeing accomplices, unravel the circumstances surrounding the incidence and bring the suspects to book.
