Attempted assassination: Publisher cries out over attempt on his life
… Asks Gov Ugwuanyi, Police Commissioner to protect his life from Monarch
NSUKKA—–“if I die today, Remigius Attah and his cohorts would have been responsible for it.”
This statement was made by the former Regional Editor of Vanguard newspaper and Publisher of Southeast Post online newspaper, Chief Emeka Mamah, who escaped death in the hands of two hired assassins in front of his house on October 12, 2020, at about 8.30 pm.Mamah, was attacked by the yet-be-identified hoodlums at his country home, Imufu, Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of Enugu State, while trying to enter his house by the hired assassins who hit him severally on the head until he fainted, along the road before the escaped, thinking he was dead.
He told reporters on his hospital bed that he had crossed the road to buy some shaving sticks in an adjacent shop and was coming back to the house when the hoodlums who hadapparently been trailing him tried to snuff life out of him.
Also in a three – page petition to the Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, and the State Commissioner of Police, Ahmad Abdulrahman, through his lawyer, Joseph Onuh, Mamah alleged that the traditional ruler of the community, HRH, Igwe Remigius Attah has placed his life under threat since he opposed him for alleged fabrication and forging of signatures of the principal members of Imufu Community in a constitution which brought him into power.
The petition by the lawyer read in part, “That Igwe once instigated the funeral procession of our client and other notable members of Imufu Community that are still alive to the extent that the matter went to police Zone 9 in Umuahia subsequent upon which the Igwe wrote an undertaking to be of good behaviour sometimes in February, 2017.
“That Igwe threatened our client when he took an opposing stand to the Igwe’s stand that it is the turn of Umuossai clan by rotation to produce the next chairman of Imufu Neighbourhood Watch group when the tenure of the former executive members of Imufu Neighbourhood Watch group expired on the 15th day of March, 2020.
“That Umualumona (Umuossai and Umuowaa clans) carried out a joint protest and demonstration against the stand of the Igwe to the effect that it was the turn of Onaje clan and the Igwe threatened and accused our client of instigating the protest.
“That the supporters of the Igwe who have been threatening the life of our client are: (1) Mr. Maxwell Ojobo (2) Anselem Odo (police ASP Rtd) and (3) Mr. Uche Odo.
“That Mr. Maxwell Ojobo recently came back from Lagos and threatened publicly that it was high time he allowed the boys that he had been stopping from attacking our client to now execute their mission against our client and that he shall even execute a deadly plan against our client for opposing their fabrication.
“However, when contacted for his reaction, the traditional ruler said he is innocent of all the allegations.
“I was given a chieftaincy tittle in appreciation for my contributions by this community. I went through due process in the local government before I became the traditional ruler of this community and the community eminently celebrated my coronation.
“The present trouble started when the President General, PG of the community, Lawrence Mamah, brought a document and asked me to sign. He told me that the tenure of the present chairman of the Neighbourhood Watch has elapsed and that another election was due. I refused to endorse it because I was not consulted.
I told him that we have to discuss it in our general assembly and decide the clan that should produce the next chairman of the watch group.
“I approached the elders’ council on the matter to inform them that it was the turn of Onaje to produce the next chairman of the watch group but I met resistance.
“They told me that Onaje has all the juicy positions in the community and that another clan should be given the opportunity to head the security outfit. I told them that Umuossai held all the key positions in the past and nobody resisted them but they refused to listen to my explanations.
“I told them that the present chairman is from Umuowaa and that Onaje, given the rotational arrangement, should be the security head, but because of their population and strength,they said, the next chairman should be by election, this was not the case before.
“Because I want peace in my community, I approached Onaje Council of Elders to allow Umuossai produce the chairman, but they vowed that it would not happen under their watch,” the monarch explained.
However, the President General, Mr Mamah, said that the Imufu General Assembly took a decision that it was the turn of Umuossai to produce the chairman of the neighbourhood watch in the presence of the Igwe without any opposition from him adding that he was abiding by the position of General Assembly. Also in his reaction, Maxwell Ojobo, who is also the chairman of Lagos State Branch, Imufu Abroad Union denied threatening Chief Mamah.
He added that he called him to convey his message of sympathy when he learnt of the ugly development, adding that he couldn’t have attacked him from Lagos State where is doing his business at the time of the incident.
Meanwhile, the matter has been referred to the state Police CIID for proper investigation1