Lagos APC Chieftain Shot Dead

The late Asake

In what appears to be a foretaste of next year’s elections in Lagos State, a chieftain of the All Progressive Congress, APC, has been shot dead in Lagos Island after the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, held its southwest rally at the Tafawa Balewa Square, TBS, at the weekend.

“After the PDP South-west rally in Lagos, Alhaji Azeez Asake of APC was allegedly shot and killed by the notorious Abija group led by one Olokodana and Ade Lawyer said to be loyal to Senator Musliu Obanikoro; a junior Minister in the Ministry of Defence,” says the Publicity Secretary, APC, Lagos State, Mr. Joe Igbokwe in a statement.

The party warned that if Senator Obanikoro and his boys called the Abija group were not called to order, they might create further crisis that would lead to bloodshed in Lagos.

APC members were holding their weekly meetings. Police in Ajah are still investigating the crime but no arrest has been made. In yesterday’s shootings, we are yet to hear that arrest has been made to bring the murderers to justice,” Igbokwe added.

According to him, “in 2007, when Senator Obanikoro was a PDP candidate for Lagos Governorship race, similar brigandage and shootings were recorded in Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos which left scores wounded when the Senator ordered his boys to shoot innocent Action Congress (AC) members where they were holding a meeting.

“We have it on record that Senator Musliu Obanikoro has been a violent politician who uses every means possible to achieve the desires of his heart irrespective of the feelings of others. Obanikoro is violent, ruthless and dangerous and he sees politics as a do or die affair, and this must be an embarrassment to the Ministry of Defence where he is a junior Minister,” he said in the statement.

Igbokwe said Lagos APC warns that it might resort to self-help if its teeming supporters could not be protected from excesses of Lagos PDP by the nation’s law enforcement agencies, as nobody had a monopoly of violence.

“For the South-west PDP rally held at TBS in Lagos on Saturday, we want President Goodluck Jonathan to call for the video recording of that event to see whether the crowd we all saw yesterday justified the huge amount he dished out to the organizers,” he said.