Barely three days to the election, disturbing videos showing the charred remains of campaign vehicles belonging to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) emerged on Wednesday, few hours after the major presidential candidates and parties taking part in Saturday’s election signed a Peace Accord in Abuja.
One of the vehicles which resembled a 14 seater Toyota Hiace bus had the name of the PDP member representing Enugu North and South Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives Honourable Ofor Chukwuegbo, branded on it, while the other sienna bus had stickers of the name of LP’s Senatorial candidate for Enugu East Oyibo Chukwu.
Unconfirmed reports indicate that the eight occupants of the sienna bus were returning from a campaign held in Agbani and heading to Amuri when they were shot dead and the vehicle set on fire.
It is not immediately clear whether Chukwu was a passenger in the ill-fated vehicle, but some reports claimed he was also shot dead.
Reacting to these reports, former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria Kingsley Moghalu took to his twitter account to mourn his former classmate at the University of Nigeria.
He wrote: “What a tragedy! I’m deeply saddened. Oyibo was my classmate at the University of Nigeria (Enugu Campus) Law Faculty. Does politics have to be this desperate and violent? May his soul rest in peace. My sincere condolences to Oyibo Chukwu’s family.”
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), also condemned the attack and called on security agencies to promptly investigate the incident and ensure that the perpetrators are prosecuted.
“The Buhari administration must promptly investigate the reported killing of the Labour Party candidate for Enugu East Senatorial district, Oyibo Chukwu in Enugu while returning from a campaign trip. The perpetrators must be immediately arrested and prosecuted,” SERAP demanded.
A former governor of the state Chimaroke Nnamani, who was expelled from the PDP on February 10th for alleged anti-party activities, but had insisted he is still the party’s candidate for the Enugu East senatorial district in Saturday’s election and party supporters have also expressed shock and anger over the attacks.
Meanwhile, during the signing of the Peace Agreement, the chairman of the National Peace Committee Abdulsalami Abubakar, expressed concern about the lack of compliance by major political parties to the National Peace Accord signed in September 2022.
Abubakar noted that 44 per cent of violations were carried out by party spokespersons, while party members, presidential candidates and hard-core supporters were also found guilty of violating the Peace Agreement in varying degrees.
The new agreement signed on Wednesday, contains clauses that commit candidates and political parties to engage their supporters and ensure a violence-free electioneering process that is also devoid of other vices such as hate speech.
The Peace Accord led Abubakar’s Committee, was supported by the Nigerian government and its international partners including the European Union and the United Nations.