How my family and I escaped assassination – Ekweremadu

The deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, has formally reported what he termed an assassination attempt on him, his wife and son, to his colleagues.

The incident was first made public by his media aide, Uche Anichukwu, who released a statement early Tuesday morning.

Shortly after the start of plenary on Tuesday, Mr Ekweremadu sought the leave of his colleagues to narrate his experience with some gunmen who, he said, came after his life and family members.

“It is with gratitude to (the) Almighty God that I will like to tell my colleagues, my constituents and the general public that myself, my wife and my son narrowly escaped assassination in the early hours of this morning.

“It was about 4 am this morning. Some people evaded the security in my house and got all the way to my room where I was sleeping with my wife. There was a struggle, there was a fight, with heavy commotion and by the grace of God we eventually caught one of them. The rest escaped.”

The deputy senate president said he would not delve into more details so as not to jeopardise the investigation by the police on one of the gunmen who was handed over to them.

He however expressed worry over how the police is handling the matter.

“We handed that one over to the police investigating the matter. The annoying aspect of it or the one that is worrisome is that at that point I called the Inspector-General of police (IGP), his phone was off. I called some of his aides, their phones rang out and nobody replied, till now. I called DIG operations, till I left my house, nobody showed up.

“I now had my people invite the DPO in charge of Apo police station. We didn’t see him till about 5:30, he sent his 2nd-in-command who came and he saw the dangerous weapons that they left behind, he left and sent that the DPO was coming. Until I left my house by 9 am, the DPO had not come.”

Efforts by TRACK NEWS to seek comments from the police was also unsuccessful. Calls and a text message to the lines of police spokesperson, Jimoh Moshood, were not replied Tuesday morning.

However, Bala Ciroma, the Abuja police commissioner, said he has not been informed of the incident.

“I have not received such report,” Mr Ciroma told PREMIUM TIMES by telephone Tuesday morning.

“It is only when I have such information that I would be able to comment.”