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Assassins not kidnappers killed APC Chairman; what he said about Buhari in 2018
BY NICHOLAS ABE
Nassarawa State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Philip Shekwo, whose dead body was found Sunday afternoon lying in a bush some distance away from his house, was murdered by assassins and not kidnappers.
Commissioner of Police Nassarawa State Command, CP Bola Longe, said the circumstance of Shekwo’s death showed that it was the handiwork of assassins.
Longe told journalists at the deceased’s home that there was a serious gun fight between the late APC Chairman’s security and his abductors on Saturday night, before he was eventually whisked away and subsequently killed. He said there were no traces of ransom demanded by his killers, thereby ruling out possibility of kidnapping.
“Intensive effort to gain entrance into the APC chairman’s house was resisted by security men. Those who killed him were not kidnappers and where we saw his dead body is too close to his house. Within a twinkling of an eye, the man was killed. No ransom was demanded I think his killers were assassins,” CP Longe said.
He added that the police command would go on a thorough investigation to reveal those behind his killing. “Those behind Philip Tatari Shekwo’s killing would be brought to book to face the full wrath of the law in the state,” affirmed.
Gunmen in their numbers were said to have stormed Shekwo’s house in Lafia, Nassarawa State, on Saturday night and abducted him at about 11pm, after a shootout with his security men.
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Meanwhile, Shekwo had in a 2018 speech at a thanksgiving service in his honour in Nassarawa described President Muhammadu Buhari as sent by God to save Nigeria from total collapse.
“If not because God, in his infinite mercy, decided to bring Buhari to power at the time He did, the country could have been in a serious mess by now.
“The President is sincerely fighting corruption; corruption is responsible for all other reasons why there is so much rot in the system.
“Boko Haram was also defeated and no Local Government Area in the country today is under the control of the group as was the case in the past.
“Immediately President Buhari started fighting corruption and corrupt people, every right-thinking Nigerian knew that corruption would fight back,’’ he said.
He had also attributed the killings by suspected herdsmen and bandits in some parts of the country to “corruption fighting back to discredit the president”.
Shekwo appealed to Nigerians to believe in the President and the party as it would take time to rebuild the system which was destroyed by former leaders.