Posted by By George Onah on
GUNMEN attacked a Commissioner in Governor Donald Duke's cabinet, penultimate week, a Special Assistant and a Board member of SPEB while the official vehicle of Ogoja Local Government chairman, Mr. Patrick Idagba was snatched at gunpoint in the state during the same period.
CALABAR - GUNMEN attacked a Commissioner in Governor Donald Duke's cabinet, penultimate week, a Special Assistant and a Board member of SPEB while the official vehicle of Ogoja Local Government chairman, Mr. Patrick Idagba was snatched at gunpoint in the state during the same period.
Attacked were commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. John Odey; Special Assistant on Tourism and Culture, Mr. Gabe Onah and Board member of State Primary Education Board (SPEB), Mr. Larry Odey. All the three men were travelling in one vehicle. Onah was wounded in the attack.
Confirming the incidents at a news briefing in Calabar, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Eugene Njepu said the gunmen apparently trailed the men from Ogoja.
Onah who had represented the governor at the dedication of St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Okoku, Yala Council, had left the venue with the other top governments officials.
They were heading for another official assignment at the Ranch Resort, Obudu.
It was learnt that the gunmen overtook them as the three men drove into Obudu Council, through Bekwarra Local Government and opened fire om their two-cabin pick-up van.
Njepu who said no arrest had been made over the attacks, acknowledged that crime rate had shot up in the state, declaring that the police was "ready more than ever before" to deal with the current situation.
He later displayed 12 men suspected to be cultists and armed robbers. The cultists, he said were caught in the act of initiating new recruits into the Vickings Confraternity.
Explaining the circumstances leading to the snatching of chairman Idagba's jeep, Njepu said the thieves collected "the Tarano jeep from Idagba's wife while returning from Calabar to Ogoja.