Again, victim of Ochadamu 2019 election violence, Yakubu Ogwu cries out after another attack
23 May 2022 |
3:28 am
For five-year-old Akache Ogwu, whose father was a victim of political violence in Ochadamu, going back to his native town is like another nightmare he would like to avoid.
Yakubu Ogwu
For five-year-old Akache Ogwu, whose father was a victim of political violence in Ochadamu, going back to his native town is like another nightmare he would like to avoid.
Ogwu, who was traumatised by the incident, said he will only return to the village if he becomes an arm bearing police officer, so as to return fire-for-fire with gunmen, who came to terrorise them during last Christmas vacation.
According to him, the gunmen came shooting at their house and shot at Uncle Sam and they had to take refuge in the bathroom.
“ I hate the sound of guns, it scares me. I will not go to the village again, except as an officer with my own machine gun,” he said.
The five-year-old was reacting to the sporadic shooting by political thugs, which pierced his mind to believe that he would only come back as an armed bearing operative to counter such violence when he comes of age.
Armed gunmen had attacked his father’s house in Ochadamu, while they were on vacation because of his political influence on the locals, who always wait for his directives on how and whom they should vote for.
Akache was not alone in that bitter experience as other family members of Daniel Yakubu Ogwu have also raised concerns over their safety, since the violent attack.
Ochadamu community in Ofu Local Council of Kogi State, came into the limelight in 2019, after political thugs invaded the community on the eve of 2019 governorship election and set some houses ablaze, including that of the People Democratic Party (PDP) Women Leader, Mrs. Salome Acheju Abuh,
Mrs. Abuh, who also had her house burnt, was not as lucky as she was burnt alive. There was also Yakubu Ogwu, an Abuja-based Estate Surveyor and indigene of Ochadamu Community, who was first singled out by armed gangs, who stormed his residence in Ejule on the eve of the 2019 governorship election where they made away with cash, phones and his other belongings.
Two days after the election, his home was amongst houses set ablaze in Ochadamu. It all started during the 2019 mayhem, when Abuh was burnt alive in her house, while other houses including that of Ogwu were looted and razed by the rampaging political thugs in Ochadamu town, Ofu Local Council of the state.
Ogwu, had narrated his ordeal and that of his family in Abuja, saying three years after the incident, his life and those of his family members are still under constant threats as he urged the security agencies to guarantee his safety and those of his family members.
He recalled that in December 2021 when he travelled with his family to his hometown in Ochadamu for Christmas and New Year vacation in the company of some security personnel, they had a close shave with death when thugs wielding guns and other weapons in four Toyota Sienna buses invaded his house shooting sporadically.
Ogwu said his nephew was attacked, while vehicles were vandalised during the incident, adding that he and his family members escaped by the whiskers.
He said his children and their mother were traumatised after witnessing the incident and had vowed never to return to the village, which they had always longed to visit.
Narrating the ordeal of his family, Mr. Ogwu said,“It is the tradition of the family to always travel home for Christmas and New Year holidays to reconnect with friends and families every year and for the children to reconnect with their cousins and friends to learn their native language, which is non-existent in the city.
“We have not been able to do this since the politically motivated attack on my house and that of the PDP woman leader during the 2019 gubernatorial election, where she was burnt alive and my house was looted and burnt.
He said he had approached the security agents who came to investigate the looting after about four months, when the authorities went after the political thugs who collected his phones and that of his siblings on the eve of the election in 2019.
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