Gunmen attack Abia governor’s convoy, seize two vehicles
Armed men on Tuesday attacked the convoy of Abia State Governor Theodore Orji on the Port Harcourt-Enugu Expressway.
The convoy was said to be on its way to the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, Rivers State, to pick Orji and his wife when the gunmen, numbering about 20, struck.
A bus conductor was reportedly killed at the scene by stray bullet during an exchange of fire between security operatives attached to the governor’s convoy and the bandits. A passer-by was also injured.
A source told our correspondent that the gunmen overpowered the security operatives and took away two sports utility vehicles from the convoy as well as laptop computers, video cameras and handsets.
One of the SUVs , said the source, was the governor’s back-up vehicle.
He added that the attack at Ngwa Itiekwe, a community near Aba, caused a huge traffic jam on both sides of the ever-busy expressway.
The source said, “It was unbelievable to see the kind of weapons the attackers used. They shot at the governor’s convoy for a long time and people fled into the bush.
“Civilians and security officers were confused as the gunfire lasted for several minutes. Even journalists, who were on the convoy, abandoned their cameras and other equipment inside the Government House Press crew bus and fled into the bush.
“The gunmen took two cars and some of the equipment away after they overpowered security officials attached to the convoy. The governor was not inside any of the vehicles.
“People were just running into the bush and the attackers could not get at anybody on the convoy.”
A statement from the Abia State Government House quoted Orji as describing the attack as an attempt to assassinate him.
The governor, who arrived at the scene of the incident shortly after, wondered why the gunmen shot at all the vehicles in the convoy if they were not after his life.
He claimed that security reports at his disposal indicated that the plan to eliminate him had been on for long “by the opposition” who did not want to wait for the Court of Appeal to give judgment on his appeal challenging the cancellation of his election by the state Election Petitions Tribunal.
The statement, which said the two seized SUVs were later abandoned by the gunmen at Ogwe in Ukwa West Local Government Area of the state, confirmed the death of the bus conductor.
The Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Chief Ralph Egbu, who also reacted to the attack, said new security strategy would be adopted by the government to boost security in the state.
Egbu told journalists that the government was not threatened by the attack.
Shortly after the attack on the governor’s convoy, soldiers from the 342 Artillery Brigade, Owerri, Imo State, arrested three members of a 15-man robbery gang on the same expressway. The suspects, said a source, were taken to the Fine Oil/Omega Police Station on the Aba-Port Harcourt Expressway.
A bullet-proof vehicle was said to have been recovered from the bandits by the soldiers.
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