A retired female military officer, Col. Chinyere Obi, has revealed how she sold her property to support the Labour Party (LP) in the last general election but was abandoned by the party after a political thug shot her.
The former LP member narrated the experience in an interview published by The Punch.
On the gunshot sustained during the election, she said, “It was a painful experience. I was a Peter Obi supporter. I made a lot of sacrifices during the electioneering but was abandoned after the attack while defending the Labour Party at my polling unit. I was in my village in the Ideato South Local Government Area of Imo State to participate in the election. On the day of the House of Assembly election, I went to cast my vote at my polling unit, Ward 1.
“Somehow, I noticed that something was wrong; when anyone wanted to vote for the Labour Party, one of the INEC officials on the ground would take his hand and ensure that the person voted for the APC. So, I told them to allow people to vote freely.
“Later, some thugs started beating the LP agent there and I intervened. A guy then approached me and said they had been observing me in the community. He said they saw how I gave rice to people and that I was busy promoting the LP. I didn’t know when he brought out a gun from his bag and shot at my leg. When I recovered, I went to the police station.”
Chinyere Obi said there was no policeman at the polling unit.
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She said that the boy that shot her was arrested after she lodged a complaint at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) but was later released.
“After I was shot and reported to the police, I went to the Owerri Health Centre. That’s where they started the treatment. I have been selling my property to treat myself. I sold my SUV of N4m for N1.5m just to pay the hospital bills after the gunshot because I’m diabetic. You can imagine having diabetes with BP and a bullet wound. It was a lot of cost for me during my stay at the hospital. I had to also borrow from some people. One of the people I borrowed N250,000 from has called me for the money. I will have to look for something to sell. I can’t go out again because there is no car. Transport fares costs have also increased.
“I can’t believe that the LP could do this to me,” she said.
On the sacrifices she made for LP, Chinyere Obi said, “During the first flag-off at Lafia (Nasarawa State), I contributed and shared food to the people who came for the programme. After the flag-off, I invited the Arewa group from the 19 northern states for mobilisation and encouraged them on the need to work effectively for Peter Obi and the party at large. I gave them food and transport fares without any support from the LP chairman. At the grassroots, I bought 200 bags of rice, noodles, bags, and customised shirts as well as other items which were distributed. The painful part is that none of the people came to sympathise with me when I was shot. I don’t know the kind of human beings people are. I sold all my property to campaign for Peter Obi. I know if it was Tinubu, I would not be suffering like this. He would have sent for me.
“I challenge them; nobody in the LP did up to what I did for Obi. Not even the National Chairman, Julius Abure. I was busy borrowing money and selling some of my properties, but all he (Abure) was doing was collecting money. Take for example, how can you collect N25m each from 15 persons in Imo State for the same governorship ticket and he didn’t screen anyone out? Who does that?”