Governor's aide killed by mob
From Aniete Akpan, Calabar
THE policemen fled, rifles and all. They had not bargained for the brand of anger that flared in the eyes of their assailants.
Now alone, and stripped of his security detail, Mr. Ishie Egbelo, special adviser to Governor Donald Duke of Cross River State, Abuja Liaison Office, pleaded with his rampaging kinsmen.
But somehow, they did not understand his language anymore. Angry hands dislodged him` from the ambushed police vehicle. They descended on him. And for Egbelo, the whole world became a barrage of blows...
Not done, the mob dragged its quarry on the ground, about 500 metres back to his village, Odaje, where more brutality was visited on what remained of Egbelo.
No Special Adviser is ever designed for such torment Egbelo (aka congressman) passed out. When family members found him later, it was in a nearby bush. They got him to an Ogoja hospital alright.
But, seeing his critical situation, a team of Egbelo's party members, led by the state People's Democratic Party (PDP) chairman, Mr. Soni Abang, arranged for his transfer for a better medical treatment in far away Calabar.
But Egbelo never made it. He died on Saturday at Ikom, 210kilometres away from Calabar.
When news of Egbelo's death reached a particular house, so The Guardian learnt, the occupants erupted in celebrations...
It was the climax of the raging rivalry and vendetta between Governor Duke's supporters and a defeated governorship candidate from another party.
Egbelo, with three armed mobile policemen, had gone to Odaje village to arrest some persons following Egbelo's petition to the Inspector-General of Police that some people in his village were threatening his life.
But when one of the suspects was arrested on Tuesday, angered youths, suspected to be supporters of the Duke's rival, barricaded the entrance to the village, catching the police team.
In the heat of the 2003 governorship elation, the genesis of the rivalry, persons suspected to be supporters of the said defeated governorship candidate had allegedly razed the houses of Egbelo and other PDP supporters in Odaje village in Nbube.
However, sources said on Saturday that most of Odaje villagers had fled the place for fear of police arrest.
When Ogbelo's house and others were torched last year, the defeated candidate was declared wanted by the police while a few people were arrested and detained at the state police command since April but were released last month. The men were charged with arson among other things.
The state police spokesman, Mr. Eze Joseph Uzonnah, confirmed Egbelo's death, saying by today (Monday), the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Eugene Njepu, would brief the press on the matter.`
