A youth leader of the Enugu State chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Kelvin Ezeoha, was recently reportedly shot dead at the party’s office at Obeagu-Awkunanaw Ward 3, Enugu South Local Government Area. A cousin of the deceased, Nkwuo Chigbo, who witnessed the incident, speaks to RAPHAEL EDE about it
You accompanied your cousin to the APC Ward meeting where he was murdered. Can you tell us what really happened?
On that fateful day, January 18, 2022, I visited him in his house. When I got there, he was in his poultry farm, serving his birds with feeds and water. Not quite long after I got there, he received a call around 9.45am. As he made me to know, the call was from Okwadike, a fellow member of the APC, who told him he and others were coming to visit him. Few minutes later, three people came and Kelvin sat with them outside the poultry to have a discussion. Shortly after, he came and told me that he was going somewhere with his visitors. He said he would call me later in the evening for us to go for our family meeting. Later in the evening, he called me, as agreed, and we went together for our family meeting.
While we were at the meeting, his mobile phone kept ringing, so much so that the head of the family had to ask him who the caller distracting him was. He responded that it was Okwadike and his other APC colleagues. He said they were calling him for a meeting in the APC office at Obeagu Ward 3.
When the family meeting ended around 6.25pm, Kelvin and I with one of our brothers left together in his vehicle. While we were on our way, Kelvin asked us to accompany him to his meeting at the APC office, which was not far away. While the other person declined because he had a pressing matter to attend to at home, I agreed to go with him after he assured me that he wouldn’t stay long there.
We got to the APC office at about 6.50pm but as Kelvin parked his vehicle, we saw some of the party members coming out from the APC office. They said the meeting had ended. But the people who called Kelvin on phone were still inside the party’s office, so Kelvin went in to greet them and I followed him. Not up to three minutes after we got inside, we heard three gunshots from outside the gate and the people who were already going home rushed back inside. Suddenly, three masked gunmen dressed in black attire stormed the office. Out of fear, we started to run helter-skelter. I ran into the main office with some elderly men. There was a door that leads to the exit gate from the building. As we were running towards the door, three other masked gunmen confronted us face to face. We immediately fell to the ground and luckily for us, the gunmen didn’t stop, they just marched over us and headed for the office. They were shouting: ‘You people are here doing party! You people are here doing party!’ Then I heard them shooting inside the office. I didn’t know that it was my cousin that was being shot.
Few minutes later, I heard gunshots some distance away outside the gate, indicating that the gunmen had left. When we rushed outside we saw that someone had been shot and the person was on the road crying for help. As we were making arrangement to take the person to the hospital, one little boy just shouted from inside the APC office that someone had been shot dead. I rushed inside and I was shocked to find my cousin on the floor in a pool of blood. I moved him but he was still and motionless. I was so shocked that I began to shiver. It was too much for me to take in. This was someone I walked in with just some moments before and now he was dead! So, I began to call our people.
Was your cousin the only person killed?
Yes; he was the only person.
Do you think those gunmen specifically came for him?
I believe so; I think his killing was planned. One curious thing was that those his party members were calling him repeatedly to come to the meeting even when the meeting had ended and it wasn’t even up to five minutes after we got there that the gunmen struck.
The information we got was that his killers were in a beer parlour close to party office drinking while waiting for their target. They didn’t attack until my brother entered the venue. We learnt that immediately my brother arrived at the office, someone called the killers to inform them of his arrival.
But some say his killing was connected to the sit-at-home of the Indigenous People of Biafra?
I don’t believe that story. From all that happened, it wasn’t an IPOB or sit-at-home issue at all, because from morning till around 4pm the road was busy and that was why we were able to go for our family meeting. What I know is that whoever had a hand in my brother’s killing will surely pay for it.
Did your brother confide in you that he had problems with any party member?
No, he actually didn’t tell me anything to that effect. He only told me they were trying to make peace among party members.
What kind of a person was he?
He was a peace-loving human being, a kind person; very dependable.
What are your demands?
I am calling on police and the Enugu State Government to ensure that those behind the murder of my brother be brought to justice. That is the only thing that can console our family.
I want my husband’s killers fished out, punished – Widow
Please introduce yourself
My name is Mrs Chidimma Ezeoha. I am the widow of the late Kelvin Ezeoha, Enugu APC youth leader, who recently assassinated during the party’s ward meeting at Obeagu-Awkunanaw. I am a 33-year-old mother of three, and as you can see, I am pregnant with my fourth child, which I am expecting in a few weeks time.
What were your last moments with your husband like on the day he was killed?
Around 5pm on that day, he came back and informed me that he was going for a meeting. Earlier in the morning, shortly after we woke up, he had told me that he would be attending a meeting of harmonisation of the party leadership later in the day. He also told me that some party members would be visiting him that morning. I was inside the house with my children when I overheard him discussing with some people who visited that morning. After that meeting, he came inside the room and told me that he was going to see a party member. He did not come back until evening. When he got back, we had a discussion after which he embraced me and told me he was going for another meeting. I guess that was his family meeting.
What do you think about his killing?
Well, from the story I was told, because I wasn’t there, my spirit is telling me that the people who killed my husband were hired.
Did he confide in you that he was having some issue with any of his political party members?
No. He never told me anything like that. What he told me was that they were having reconciliation and later he told me they were on harmonisation.
What are your demands?
I am calling on the government to help me to fish out those who killed my husband and made my children fatherless. They (the killers) should be fished out to face justice; that is the only thing that can console me. I have also taken the matter to God almighty, the one who sees in secret and oversees the affairs of men to be the judge.
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