Tension in Uyo over fear of political killings

There is tension all over the oil rich state of Akwa Ibom at the moment over fears that hired killers are on the trail of some politicians opposed to the twin ambition of Governor Godswill Akpabio’s bid for the Senate and imposition of the Secretary to the State Government, Emmanuel Udom, as the governorship candidate of the PDP in the 2015 election. Sources told us this is reminiscent of the incessant bloodletting that the state witnessed in the wake of the general elections in 2011.

According to a report in The Punch of Wednesday May 14, 2014,   “the visit by suspected assassins to the Uyo office of the immediate past board Chairman, Akwa Ibom Property and Investment Company Limited, Mr. Soni Udom, on Monday, May 5, 2014, is a pointer to this supposition. This incident, which is the latest in a series, in recent times, is a sad reminder to residents of the state that the era of politics of bloodshed appears to be back in the state.”
On the volume of bloodletting that had greeted the 2011 elections, The Punch, quoting a report by the Nigeria Police said that: “The police report said in 2009 alone, Akwa Ibom recorded 177 murders (most of which are said to be politically motivated), 62 attempted murders, one manslaughter, eight suicides, 21 attempted suicides, 320 assaults, 18 child stealing, 93 rape cases and indecent assaults, 29 kidnappings, among others. The 2011 figures marked a remarkable increase when compared to 2007.
Soni Udom who was lucky to be out of his office at the time of the visit of the hoodlums told the newspaper: “I was highly disturbed about the mission of the gunmen because since I’ve been using this office in the last seven years there has never been a single incident of criminal operation in broad daylight around this neighbourhood.” According to eyewitnesses, the gunmen, five in number, came into the premises and held the security man and staff including students on Industrial Training and a National Youth Service Corps member hostage at gunpoint. They seized their mobile phones and started ransacking the office room-to-room, breaking into toilets, looking for me. The gunmen were well armed as some of them had two pistols strapped to their waists. When some of them started seizing phones from my staff, one of the gunmen shouted, ‘Is that what we came for?’ In anger, he shot at the hand of the one collecting phones from my workers, cutting off a finger in the process. But in spite of the serious injury, the suspected assassin that was shot still went into all the other rooms, broke the toilets to look for me.”
We learnt that stakeholders in the state have appealed to the state government to step up security as a way to safeguard lives and property even as many of the opponents to the governor vowed that he would neither get the senate seat which belongs to the Abak people nor succeed in imposing a governor on the state.