Kogi: The killing of Mrs. Abuh must not be swept under carpet

On November 16, 2019, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) conducted governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa State. There was also a re-run for Kogi West Senatorial District the same day.

Both the election in Bayelsa and that of Kogi witnessed severe violence that was condemned by Nigerians as well as local and international observers.

But the violence in Kogi was unprecedented in Nigeria’s recent history, leading to the death of not less than nine people.
While Nigerians were recovering from the ugly incidences that occurred during the Bayelsa and Kogi elections, a Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) woman leader in one of the wards Mrs. Salome Acheju Abuh was brutally murdered by hoodlums suspected to be political thugs who locked her up in her residence, set the building ablaze and were said to have stood there watching to ensure that she was completed dead before leaving.

While she was burning and screaming, the murderers were said to have shot several bullets to ensure she did not escape from the fire, until all went ominously quite before they left.

The Nigeria Police later confirmed the killing of Mrs. Abuh through its Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP William Aya who in a statement titled “Culpable homicide/mischief by fire,” stated that the incident happened November 18, 2019 at about 1630hrs. Names of suspects were also mentioned in the statement.

The husband of the murdered woman, Elder Abuh while giving account of what transpired stated that his late wife was the sunshine of his family and that her gruesome murder has left a vacuum noby can fill.

Also speaking, Eikojonwa Tavershima, daughter and first child of the woman said her mother was roasted by suspected political thugs in the Ofu Local Government Area of Kogi State. She said only the ashes and burnt skull of her mother were found after the fire the set on the house had burnt out.

Teavershima who spoke during an interview with journalists in Abuja when the Convener of ‘Womanifesto’ and Executive Director of Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre, Dr. Abiola Akiyode – Afolabi, led a protest against the violence on women, including the post-election violence in Kogi State.

“Indeed she is my mother and she deserves this. The way she died was uncalled for and I pray that justice be given to these women for the sake of late Salome,” she said.

Read Also: Financial autonomy: A litmus test for the Legislature, Judiciary

Following her murder, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the governorship election, Musa Wada has visited the family of the deceased woman where he appealed to the Inspector General of the Nigeria Police to arrest killers of Acheju Abu and bring them to book.

The candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the same election, Natasha Akpoti also called for the arrest of those fingered in the woman’s death Mrs. Salome Abuh. She made the call when she visited the fallen woman’s family, describing the manner of her death as horrible as nobody deserves to die in such a manner.

“No one should be killed in the name of democracy, we can’t believe Nigeria has deteriorated to this state, it is extremely unacceptable.

“I can’t imagine the pains she went through in her last moment, calling for help until her voice was not heard, we are calling on the government to give justice to Mrs. Salome”, she said.

Although there is no report that Kogi state governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello has visited the family to commiserate with them over the death, he however has promised that his administration will compensate families of those that lost their lives during the election.

The promise was made public by the Director General, Media, Publicity and Strategy to Governor Bello, Kingsley Fanwo in Lokoja.

Fanwo said, “The State Executive Council has condemned in strong terms, the pockets of violence which greeted the last governorship election in the state”, adding that “loss of lives in the struggle for power is mindless and unacceptable.”

“The council also commended security agencies for their efforts at bringing purveyors and promoters of such violence to book with a view to sending a strong signal to hoodlums that the Kogi State Government will not accept any threat to the lives of the people of the state.

“Of particular reference was the woman who was burnt in Ochadamu and the man who was stabbed to death. We also got reports of direct attacks on some politically-exposed persons with the intent of terminating their lives.

“As a government, we will give security agencies every support to track down and prosecute those who hid under politics to perpetrate crime.

“But beyond that, we will compensate families that lost loved ones and properties. We know nothing could pay for the life of a human; but as a government, our hearts are with those bereaved families”.

This is not the first, the second or the third time that government, federal or state would threaten to arrest perpetrators of evil in the country after which the matter concerned would die naturally, the reason therefore why people are willing to commit all kinds of criminality, knowing that ‘nothing will happen.’

It is on that note therefore that we demand that the federal government through the various security agencies in Nigeria should work the talk by ensuring that those who conspired to roast Mr. Salome Abuh alive are arrested and made to face the brunt of the law.