DAILY INDEPENDENT
The 2023 General elections held on 25th February and 18th March respectively have been described as the worst in Nigeria in recent times in terms of the high level of electoral violence. No fewer than 130 election-related deaths have been recorded across Nigeria in the build-up to and after the polls. SAMSON NWAFOR writes on the killings that trailed the elections, including the death of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chairman and a traditional ruler in Ebonyi State, Enugu Labour Party (LP) Senatorial candidate amongst others.
The 2023 general elections may have come and gone but the political violence and killings that characterised the exercise have left so many families in anguish, and desolation with a sour taste in the mouths of many. Ebonyi State had its own share of violence. The case of Mr. Peter Nweke, the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ezza North Local Government Area, who was killed at his polling Unit 10, Ogboji Ward by unknown gunmen during the March 18, governorship and State House of Assembly elections lives much to be desired.
According to a close family source that preferred not to be mentioned, who described the killing of Mr. Peter Nweke as terrible and disheartening, said the deceased was a peaceful person who abhorred violence, adding that prior to the incident, the deceased had revealed to him that he and some other persons had been enlisted for elimination.
The Source said: “It was a terrible incident and disheartening. He returned home on Friday ahead of the Saturday Governorship and State Assembly elections. We had a meeting on how to do the voting together and around 12 a.m. (that night), we moved around to canvas for our preferred candidates and we did that till 3 a.m. before we retired to our respective houses.
“And around 6 a.m., he and one Solomon Eze took off to Achiegu, which is our collation centre to bring the electoral materials. It was around 11 a.m. when I went to our polling unit and saw that they had returned from the collation centre and voting was already ongoing.
“At a point, there was a misunderstanding amongst the stakeholders over the voting process but it was resolved. There was no quarrel or fighting, but before we knew it, two chattered motorcycles conveying three persons each, drove into the venue where the voting was taking place and when we sighted them from afar because I and four others including late Peter Nweke were inside one of the school buildings discussing, we ran far away.
“We stayed away for about 10 minutes or more. After a while, I saw women who had run away returning to the polling unit and felt that those people had gone or that they were not harmful people which was why we decided to advance closer to the polling unit but while we were going, late Peter Nweke’s phone rang and he stopped to answer it and I moved but immediately I stepped into that Primary School building, I was surrounded by armed men with AK-47 riffles. They were not security men, they were gunmen. As they surrounded me, I pleaded with them not to kill me that I’m not a politician.
