Attack on Abia PDP guber campaign DG: Ikpeazu calls for investigation, prosecution of assailant

Abia State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, yesterday, requested the state Police Commissioner, Mustapha Baba, to investigate and prosecute an un-named Department of State Services (DSS) operative, who, on Sunday, along Azikwe road, Umuahia, the state capital, allegedly attacked and inflicted multiple machete cuts and injuries on the Director General of the state’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate Campaign Organisation for the 2023 general elections, Chinedu Elechi.

The governor, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Onyebuchi Ememanka, commended the courage of members of the public, and men of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), who helped to overpower and recover weapon used by Elechi’s attacker/assailant, who was alleged to be a DSS operative of Ebonyi State Command.

The CPS said: “The governor demands thorough investigation into this inexplicable display of barbarism, and tasks the Commissioner of Police to ensure the assailant faces the full weight of the law.”

Abia Police Public Relations Officer, Geoffrey Ogbonna, who confirmed the incident, said the attacker was arrested and is in custody, while investigation has commenced.

Speaking from his hospital bed, Elechi narrated how he was attacked, saying that the DSS operative wanted to machete him to death on Sunday on Azikiwe Road, Umuahia, in broad day light.

His words: “My attacker’s reason was that I scratched his car, which is not true. He came after me, blocked the car I was driving, came out of his car, used a machete to break the windows of my car, and began to butcher me this way.”

“But for bystanders who intervened, I would have been a dead man for what I don’t know. I will need surgery for my left arm, because the machete, which cut through my artery, has immobilised the fingers of my left hand. It is only by the grace of God I am alive. He meant to kill me in cold blood. I need prayers to get through this.”