Addressing a press conference on Tuesday in Lokoja, the state leader of the SDP, Alhaji Hassan Enape, said that there was no iota of truth in the APC position to the effect that the victim was shot by the party loyalists.
According to him, “Rather, APC thugs waylaid party supporters on their way to the palace of the Ohimege Igu, Konto-Nkarfe and destroyed the chairs and canopies erected to host SDP supporters and proceeded to the campaign ground shooting sporadically into the air when a bullet from their pump action guns hit the young lady.”
He also denied that the party’s governorship candidate, Muritala Ajaka, was moving around with thugs in police uniforms.
“Our security personnel were legitimately assigned to our principal from the office of the Inspector General of Police and can be verified by the Commissioner of Police instead of describing them as fake. There is no single plain-clothed security personnel in the SDP’s entourage, we do not harbour thugs”
Enape said that the party does not believe that the Kogi State police command will be able to provide a level playing ground during the November 11 governorship election in the state.
“This is because of the lies they have been peddling about our principal that he didn’t obtain permission for the rally to hold when in actual fact a subsisting court order has expressly stated that Ajaka should not respond to any police invitation”.
In his reaction, however, the state APC campaign council said that “it is not out of place, that after exposing the murderous campaign of the SDP in our World Press Conference yesterday, they are expected to come out to defend themselves”.
The Director, Media and publicity of the campaign council, Kingsley Fanwo, said that their response “shows the tactless, lacklustre approach of the ill-prepared desperate politician”.
He said that the police have released their preliminary reports and the SDP candidate should honour the invitation of security agencies to explain why his thugs killed the innocent Kotonkarfe woman and left the entire community mourning.
“While explaining the blood on his hands, he can as well give evidence of his recent claims to the Police and other law enforcement agencies. His macabre dance on the grave of an innocent woman won’t save him. He has murdered sleep and has a date with the rule of law. We won’t glorify him with any serious response,” He added.
