Nothing short of total victory for Labour Party (LP), in Enugu State, would be good enough to punish those who killed Oyibo Chukwu, the candidate of the party for the Enugu East Senate, who was assassinated by a yet to be arrested gunmen, few days to the February 25 presidential and National Assembly election. Arthur Chukwu, his younger brother and a teacher at the Nigerian Law School, made the appeal to voters in the state on Friday urging for an overwhelming votes as was done in the last election.
Chukwu, was waylaid by gunmen at Amaechi Awkunanaw, in Enugu South Local Government Area of state, three days to the February 25 National Assembly election while returning from a family meeting in his hometown of Amurri in Nkanu West Local Government Area.
The assailants had set ablaze the Siena car in which Chukwu, a veteran politician a former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) chairman in Enugu State, was travelling alongside his personal assistant, Sunday Igwesi, in the incident, which shook the political landscape in the state and beyond.
“A vote for the Labour Party is a vote for change in Enugu State in particular and Nigeria in general,” the younger brother, a Professor and Head of the Department (HOD) of Professional Ethics and Skills at the Nigerian Law School, Yola Campus in Adamawa State, told journalists on the phone on Thursday.
“Even though I am not a politician, it is important to make this call on the Enugu people because some politicians without moral scruples in Enugu who have been diametrically opposed to everything Peter Obi of the Labour Party stands for are telling people to vote for them in this week’s election because they falsely claim to have supported the party during the presidential vote.
“They include members of the Ebeano cult of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), whom my brother told a number of people were planning to assassinate him even up to the morning he was murdered on Wednesday, February 22, alongside his faithful PA, and their bodies and vehicle burnt beyond beyond recognition.
“A vote for any other party would mean that Chief Oyibo died in vain. Even though every person knows that he was killed for fighting for social justice, as the immediate past Ohanaeze Ndigbo President General, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, a former Minister of Information, said last Wednesday at the memorial service.
“Assassins and those notorious for violent politics in the state, must not be rewarded with high public office. I’m optimistic that my younger brother, Sir Kelvin Chukwu, an entrepreneur who studied both mass communication and law and now flying the LP flag in the Enugu East senatorial race on March 18, will win an overwhelming majority of the votes.
“A knight of St John International, Kelvin is humble, simple, accessible, focused and committed to the public good. He will make a very good senator. I wonder why former Governor Chimaraoke Nnamani is claiming to still be in race for the Enugu East senatorial district when the PDP has not reversed his expulsion for anti-party activities by campaigning and unabashedly for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“The Constitution provides that only candidates sponsored by political parties can contest in any election, and the PDP national leadership has written two letters to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) stating in black and white that it has no candidate in the senatorial election. Therefore, any vote for the PDP in the Enugu East senatorial race is a wasted vote.”