Four police officers were killed in an attack that targeted the convoy of the former governor of Imo state, Ikedi Ohakim, and his family in southeast Nigeria on Monday.
The attack took place as the former official was returning from a visit. Gunmen attempted to stop the convoy, but the driver conveying Ohakim, along with his daughter and son, managed to maneuver and escape the gunfire.
However, having missed their main target, the attackers set the vehicle transporting the ex-governor’s security personnel ablaze, consisting of four police officers.
“We were driving between Isiala Mbano and Ehime Mbano. These people blocked us at a place called Umualumaku,” the former Imo State head, Ohakim, told local media. “They attacked us from behind and were firing at our vehicles consistently. I thought I was a dead man, and I was with two of my children – my son and daughter.”
Ohakim noted that his life and the lives of his family were saved thanks to the bulletproof vehicle and the driver, who showed "a tremendous level of driving skill.”
“That I am alive today is by the special grace of God and the bulletproof vehicle,” the former official said. “But unfortunately for me, they killed four of our boys, including the driver. Yes, we lost four of the boys, and I am devastated. How can that be? What crime did they commit?”
He pointed out that the attackers chased his vehicle for nearly 20 minutes until the driver managed to escape from them at a junction. Ohakim said that upon his arrival home, “Imo Government House sent reinforcement from Owerri who brought the corpses of my security people.”
Speaking of the suspected perpetrators, the former governor asserted that the attack "goes beyond the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB)," a separatist movement in southeastern Nigeria that seeks secession from the West African nation to form an independent country.
An investigation into the incident is already underway, according to local authorities.
The attack came one month before Nigeria’s general elections, in which Nigerians are set to choose a successor to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, whose second term is coming to end on May 29, 2023. They will also elect officials in parliamentary and state elections.
In the run-up to the 2023 elections, the southeast of Nigeria has witnessed a series of attacks targeting officials and security forces, as well as facilities of the country’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The electoral body reported at least 50 attacks on its sites in the region over the past few months.