An uneasy calm now pervades Eha Alumona, Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State as a strong supporter of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Chukwuemeka Ishienyi, was shot dead on Wednesday.
The deceased was said to have been shot dead while returning from a meeting allegedly organised by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at Eha Uno Ward in Nsukka.
Ishienyi, 24, and the only son of his mother, a Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) who visited the community learnt, was a strong supporter of the PDP before he joined the over 100 youths that decamped to APC a month ago.
However, the Enugu State Police Command’s Public Relations Officer, DSP Ebere Amaraizu, said he had not been informed about the incident, adding: “I will find out”.
The journalists had earlier visited the Nigeria Police Divisional Headquarters, Umuabor Ehalumona, where they were referred to the PPRO for comment on the incident.
But the Chairman, Eha Uno Ward of APC, Mr Lawrence Alumona, told the two newsmen at the deceased compound that before his death, Ishienyi came to him about a month ago and informed him about how he and his friends were disenchanted with PDP and wanted to join APC.
“He came to me one day and said that they did not like what PDP was doing and that they want to switch over to APC,” he said.
According to the ward chairman, ever since the late Ishienyi and his group joined the APC, the deceased had been receiving death threats.
“They have been threatening me and warning me to be careful. Since then, I have not been sleeping in my community. I didn’t know that this could lead to death and now see what has happened,” Alumona lamented as he narrated what Ishienyi had told him.
Alumona said that one the day that he died, Ishienyi had told him that the PDP invited him for a meeting and he never returned from the meeting alive.
“The PDP invited him to know why he decamped and to persuade him to rejoin the party and when he was coming back, he was shot dead,” he alleged.
Another supporter of APC in the area, Mr Okwudili Ugwu, said that on the evening he was killed, the deceased was with him and they drank till 8 p.m. but only to hear in the morning on Wednesday that he was dead.
Ugwu said that the youth that took his dead body to the hospital were singing an ominous song that portends danger of a possible breakdown of law and order.
He said that his body was deposited at a local hospital at Umuabor, called Daughters of Divine Love (DDL) Hospital.
The aged grandmother of the slain youth, Mrs Veronica Ishienyi, narrated how the news of his death was broken to her.
“On Wednesday in the morning, some members of my church came to me and were asking me why I did not come for morning mass. I told them that I had pain in my legs and that was why I could not come.
“After some time, they told me without beating about the bush that Chukwuemeka was dead. I asked which Chukwuemeka and they said my grandson. I wept but I know that will not bring him back to life. Now his body is deposited in the hospital,” she lamented.
His older sister who came down from Enugu, Ifeanyi, said she was shocked to hear that her younger brother and the only brother was dead.
“At first, they told me that it was an accident but I later discovered that he was shot dead,” she said, noting that she never knew he was involved in active politics.
According to her, he was in Ghana at a time doing business and only came home recently.
A source close to the family disclosed that the deceased was supposed to travel outside Nigeria in March and that his Visa was ready for the travel before tragedy struck.
However, the PDP Ward Chairman for Eha Uno Ward, Austin Odo, said that he did not call Chukwuemeka for any meeting.
He claimed that there had been series of support group meetings going on here and there and that he might have attended one of the meetings before his death.
“I am aware of the incident but I did not call for any meeting. There has been series of meetings of party support groups.
“He may have attended one of them before the incident happened. He was one of our strong supporters before,” Odo told newsmen.
He explained that he was a tanker driver and that he was not around when the incident happened but heard about it when he returned. (NAN)