A staunch PDP member in the area blamed a group known as Leaders of Ngwaukwu for the unfortunate incident. He claimed that the original plan of the group was to scuttle the PDP primary election but the overzealousness of the hired thugs made things to get out of hand.
The four suspects, who were paraded in the state capital Umuahia on Wednesday evening by the Abia State Police Command, are students of different universities in the state. The blazing fire ignited by the hoodlums burnt four members of staff of the council, leaving one person dead and others with severe burns. The dead, Onyemachi Onyenro, worked in the office of the chairman.
News Express learnt this morning that one of the victims, Ms Amarachi Orioha, was moved at midnight from the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Umuahia casualty unit to the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Enugu after her condition worsened.
Parading the four suspects yesterday evening, Abia State Commissioner of Police, Leye Oyebade, said that they were caught at the scene of the incident. He pointed out that the students had no business being there at that material time since they were neither workers of the council nor PDP delegates. Oyebade said that the suspects would soon be charged to court.
On the genesis of the crisis and how it snowballed into violence, our source said: “Trouble started when information got to a group who call themselves Leaders of the Ngwaukwu extraction of the LGA that they had lost out in the scheme of things as the list of delegates that emerged from the field during the Ward congress held on the 21st day of October 2016 had been validated by the state leadership of PDP. The meeting, which was attended by one of the PDP chairmanship aspirants, a former Speaker of the House of Assembly in whose house the meeting was held, one of the coordinators of the chairmanship aspirants and the Transition Chairman of the LGA, resolved to burn down the office of the Transition Chairman of Isiala Ngwa North LGA, Big Alex Nwosu, to create confusion which would lead to the abortion of the primaries and allow room for the conspirators to re-strategise. The former Speaker, C. O. Enweremadu, then mobilised four hoodlums who were driven by the Transition Chairman in an unmarked vehicle to the LG Secretariat.”
According to eye-witness accounts, upon arriving at the LG Party Secretariat, the four hoodlums alighted from the tinted Siena car carrying them. They stormed the office of the Chairman, poured petrol on the office and set it alight. The raging inferno caught up with one of the staff, Mr. Onyenmaechi Onyenro, and he burnt to death. Other staff of the LG who were in the office as at the time of the attack also suffered severe burns with two of them, Ms. Amarachi Orioha and Ms. Florence Akwarandu, severely burnt and fighting for their life.
The eye-witnesses disclosed that security operatives who were within the area arrested three of the assailants while the fourth ran into the Siena car and was whisked off.
The PDP primaries eventually held at the Woman Development Center of Isiala Ngwa North LGA about five hours after the incident after security agents secured the entire LG Headquarters at Okpuala Ngwa.
News Express made vain efforts to reach C. O. Enweremadu but was able to reach Big Alex Nwosu early this morning. After our reporter identified himself and sought his reaction to to the story, the Transition Committee Chairman promised to get back in 10 minutes but has yet to do so after several hours.
