Following the failed assassination attempt on the Managing Director of Young Shall Grow Motors Limited, Chief Vincent Obianodo, and the rising crime rate in FESTAC Town, Lagos, southwest Nigeria, residents, mainly of Igbo descent, are planning to stage a peaceful protest this weekend.

Gunmen believed to be assassins recently blocked Obianodo’s Lexus Sports Utility Vehicle, SUV, in FESTAC, and tried to assassinate him.

The suspected assassins riddled Obianodo’s SUV with bullets, killing his driver and a female police orderly, while Obianodo, who narrowly escaped death, was injured in the arm and has been flown abroad for treatment.

The gruesome attack has prompted the residents to lose faith in the ability of the police in FESTAC to protect them, because they said this was one gruesome attack too many.

The residents are planning the peaceful protest against the backdrop of the incessant security challenges in FESTAC Town and its environs, while calling on the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar to nip it in the bud before it gets out of hand.

Some of the residents alleged that it was the same vehicle that a special squad from the Area ‘E’ Command uses for their operations that was used in kidnapping an Igbo chief recently and it was the same vehicle that was also used in the failed assassination attempt on Obianodo.

The Igbos made up of businessmen said it is high time they cried out before the crime rate escalated.

Leading the proposed peaceful protest is a close associate of Obianodo, who wants to remain anonymous.

He accused the police of being culpable in the failed assassination attempt, adding “the families of Chief (Obianodo) have continued to ask questions why the police did not respond swiftly when they heard sporadic shootings on the night he was attacked.”

Expected among the protesters is Chukwuma Nwokeoma, a business tycoon, who opined that there is more to the failed assassination attempt on Obianodo than meets the eye.

“The police have stopped me times without number with a particular car but since the attack on chief, that car has suddenly disappeared. Concerned authorities should please ask the police where the said car is. I am raising this question now before they finish killing us all,” said Nwokeoma, who hails from Neni, Anambra State, the same village as Obianodo.

Nwokeoma added that they are already mobilising Igbos in FESTAC ahead of the peaceful protest while calling on the State Security Service, SSS, to take over the investigation into the failed assassination attempt.

Meanwhile, families of Obianodo also want the case to be transferred, having lost confidence in the police there.

•Credit (except for photo and amended headline): PM NEWS. Photo shows Chief Obianodo.

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