The funeral services of Chief Oyibo Chukwu, a former Enugu chapter chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, who was assassinated last 22nd February while campaigning for Enugu East senatorial seat on the Labour Party ticket, will be held on 8th and 9th December in his hometown of Amuri in Nkanu West Local Government Area.
Chukwu, who served as the national auditor of the defunct Social Democratic Party in the defunct Third Republic, and later became the Enugu State secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party at the dawn of the Fourth Republic in 1999, was returning from a family meeting in his hometown when he was gunned down in Amechi Awkunanaw in Enugu South Local Government Area, three days to senatorial election.
“He was not just assassinated”, declared his younger brother, Arthur Chukwu, a professor at the Nigerian Law School in Yola, Adamawa State, “but also cremated by the barbarians, alongside his faithful personal assistant, in their Sienna vehicle”.
The victims had no security with them because, according to Prof. Chukwu, his brother shunned politics of bitterness and consequently thought that he would not be a target of violent attacks by opponents.
Chukwu was projected to win the election because of his immense popularity and that of the Labour Party in the Southeast geopolitical zone.
The killings provoked national outrage, with then-President Muhammadu Buhari not just condemning the murders and arson but also directing the police and other security agencies to fish out the perpetrators immediately.
“It is regrettable that the cowards who murdered Chief Oyibo and his PA have not been unmasked”, said Hon. Paul Nnamchi, a Labour Party member of the House of Representatives, who was a professor of engineering at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had to shift the senatorial election to 11th March to hold alongside the governorship and House of Assembly elections. The Labour Party elected Chukwu’s younger brother, Sir Kelvin Chukwu, an entrepreneur who studied Mass Communication and later Law, as its flagbearer. He won the election by polling 69,136 votes, while a former Enugu State governor, Dr. Chimaraoke Nnamani, who was also a sitting senator, received 48,701 votes.
According to a popular Enugu-based broadcaster and media consultant, Chijioke Ogbodo, “given the national attention which Chief Chukwu’s callous murder has generated and the subsequent rescheduled Enugu East senatorial election which his younger won easily and by a wide margin, the funeral holding early next month will be a national event.
“The family has, as a result, decided to conduct the funeral, including an interdenominational service, in the biggest public school in Amuri.
“That’s a fitting way to say goodbye to this exceedingly popular politician noted for eloquence and glamour as well as commitment to the public good”.
