March 19th 2016 was a sad day for members of the Peace Corps in Abalama, Asari-Toru LGA of Rivers State as Mr. Ojukaye Flag Amachree, a political godson of the minister for Transport, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, allegedly shot and killed a member of the Peace Corps during the #RiversReRun.
In an attempt to escape the scene, he ran over the already dead peace corps member with his red Toyota Tacoma truck. Irate voters chased after him with stones and sticks and he abandoned his truck and escaped firing shots into the air to scare the people away.
Ojukaye Flag Amachree was the former CareTaker Committee chairman of the LGA during the administration of Mr Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi as governor of the state.
It was learnt that he boasted to people that he would do anything he wanted and nobody would touch him because he has the backing of the then governor. That fateful morning while voters were coming to their various polling units to cast their votes, Ojukaye Flag Amachree, a native of Buguma city in Asari-Toru LG left his polling unit which is a 30 minutes drive away from Abalama town to visit Abalama with his thugs and retinue of men dressed in Police Uniforms to coerce voters to vote for the the candidate of the All Progressives Congress Party (APC).
The people resisted the coercion and in the process, the candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) , Hon. Enemi Alabo George representing the constituency in the State House of Assembly asked him to go back to his polling unit and not disrupt the peaceful conduct of the elections in his area. Ojukaye refused and boasted that he would deal with anyone who would attempt to vote for PDP. While this harassments continued, members of the NYSC sent to the area to conduct the elections kept a vigilant eye on the electoral materials. Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo got wind of the situation via a telephone call and he rushed to the scene and politely asked Ojukaye to return back to Buguma city and allow the process of voting go on peacefully, all pleas of non-violence fell on deaf ears. In attempt by his boys to snatch one the ballot boxes, the peace corps member resisted and next was a shot aimed at him by Mr Ojukaye Flag Amachree.
The incident was reported to the Electoral Officer who promptly made a report to the Resident Electoral Commissioner of the INEC in Rivers state and the elections in the area was cancelled.
Later that same day, boys attached to Mr Ojukaye Flag Amachree, attacked and killed an uncle of his who is a known supporter of the PDP and a week later another PDP member Godknows Babdiba was killed. Godknows Babdiba had a week before his death reported to the men of Nigeria Police Force that he had been receiving threat calls and notes by men attached to Mr Ojukaye Flag Amachree.
Mr Ojukaye’s reign of terror has been going on until 2 weeks ago when one of his men, Mr Tekena Harry was arrested with guns and taken into custody. After making some confessional statements, the Rivers state Police command issued a warrant for arrest of Mr Ojukaye who went into hiding and a man hunt was initiated by the men of the police force. Last week, Mr Ojukaye , believing that the heat had turned down resurfaced and went with some other people to the police station where Tekena was being held with claims that the minister for transport had sent him with some police men to take Tekena into custody and transfer his case to the zonal headquarters of the police command.
The police were not cowed, instead of acting like he had anticipated, they arrested him and charged him for murder and gun running amongst other charges that had been reported to the police before by different people.
Mr Ojukaye Flag Amachree, is now in Port Harcourt Prisons waiting for the commencement of his trial for the murders during and after the #RiversRerun elections.
__________
Follow us on Twitter at @thesignalng
Copyright 2015 SIGNAL. Permission to use portions of this article is granted provided appropriate credits are given to www.signalng.com and other relevant sources.
In this article:#RiversRerun, APC, Ojukaye Flag Amachree, PDP, Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi
Click to comment
