By Joe Iniodu
Yesterday, October 7, began another day of mourning in Akwa Ibom State. It came on the heels of the death of Mr Imoh Isang who is said to have been gunned down alongside his police orderly, Inspector Linus Odey by people suspected to be members of IPOB and operating a heartless killer wing called unknown gunmen.
Imoh Isang popularly known as DIG was hacked down yesterday while on official assignment to outside the State through Owerri. The details of the gruesome murder are gory and heart-rending. The body of the vivacious, ebullient, warm and super active Chief Protocol Officer to Senator Bassey Albert, the gubernatorial candidate of YPP is said to have been brought back to Akwa Ibom yesterday “lifeless” and deposited in the mortuary. But in a sane clime , DIG and the police orderly had no business dying. They were not traveling at odd hours. Isang may have deemed that he supposedly protected in the refuge of an armed policeman. But rather than be a protection, the presence of an armed policeman became his albatross. Adopting the style of guerilla warfare, these barefaced criminals who couch their sub- culture activities under the pretence of agitation ambushed and opened fire on vehicles. The conducts conduce with cowardice which give vent to the type of violence they perpetrate and which is now a recurring decimal.
Imo and the police orderly were on a legimate mission. They neither offended the law nor man nor tribe. They were not even given an opportunity to stir an altercation to justify or merit the unwholesome death. They were cut short by a bunch of unscrupulous criminals who have completely lost their humanity and turned themselves into murderous maniacs that relish taking other people’s lives .
Many questions arise from the activities of IPOB and its extraction being the unknown gunmen. What are they really looking for? If they are for the sovereignty of Biafra, why are they spilling the blood of innocent people? Do they need blood to build their nation? It is a fact that if this savagery is not halted, it may affect the relationship of the Igbos with other regions. Sometime ago, a prominent politician of Northern extraction, Alhaji Ahmed Gulak was killed in Imo State. Less than a month ago, the convoy of Senator Ifeanyi Uba was attacked and about a dozen people killed. One of the victims of that dastardly act was an Akwa Ibom son who was a photographer to the Senator. Coincidentally, his remains were brought back to the State earlier yesterday while another of our illustrious son, Imoh Isang was felled same yesterday in the same Igbo land. This trend is worrisome and unlikely to promote good neigbourliness.
DIG was a jolly good fellow; jovial, affable and sociable. One can not forget his standard response to the name DIG, “one that can not be retired”. This jocular mindset may have been the adrenaline behind his sense of service. Imoh Isang was not only a workaholic, he carried out any work assigned him with an extreme sense of devotion. He believed in hard work and made it his creed. And it was in the course of work that he met the untimely death that has brought a pall of gloom to the Akwa Ibom community.
To Senator Bassey Albert and the families of the deceased including Inspector Linus Odey, I extend my deepest condolences and pray God to comfort and uphold them in these very difficult times.