Militants bomb Alaibe’s house, kill police orderly
Headlines Nov 13, 2010
No. 163 P.T.I. Road, Effurun home of Delta State Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, guber aspirant; Mr. Jude Ukusare set ablaze on Thursday night, roasting his 73-year- old mother and a 9 -year-old niece alive
Militants, early yesterday bombed the Opokuma, Bayelsa State country home of the Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta, Mr. Timi Alaibe, killing his police guard.
Also, earlier on Thursday, unidentified mercenaries attacked the Effurun, Delta house of an ACN governorship aspirant, Mr. Jude Ukusare with dynamite that claimed the lives of his 73- year old mother, Agnes and a nine year- old girl identified as Favour Najemo.
Mr. Alaibe is currently involved in rehabilitation of repentant militants.
The police guard’s name was given as Derigo.
A Rocket Propelled Grenade launcher, RPG, believed to have been abandoned by the invaders, was reportedly recovered from the scene by men of the Joint Task Force.
Troops have since condoned off the area.
A community source said residents were woken up by sporadic shooting.
ACN gov aspirant’s home too
The 73 -year old mother of an Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, governorship aspirant in Delta State, Mr. Jude Ukusare and a nine- year old girl, Thursday lost their lives after unidentified men bombed his Effurun residence near Warri.
Mr. Ukusare who was the target of the attack was not at home when the men believed to be members of a private political group struck at about 9 pm . He returned from a meeting to meet his house on fire.
The charred remains of his mother and the young girl were taken away in an ambulance yesterday to the mortuary.
Policemen from the Bomb Disposal Unit of the Delta State Police Command visited the burnt residence on 163 Petroleum Training Institute, PTI, Road, Effurun, near Warri yesterday morning to carry out investigations. Saturday Vanguard also saw the Area Commander, Warri, Zanna Ibrahim and the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, Ekpan Police Division, Mohammed Muazu, CSP, inspecting the razed building.
The Area Commander said the police would go all out to find the brains behind the incident and ensure that justice was done.
Sympathizers weeping uncontrollably at the Ukusare's home.Photos by Akpokona Omafuaire
Ekpan DPO, Muazu , who personally led policemen to the scene to disperse the hostile crowd about 45 minutes later, told Saturday Vanguard that he alerted the fire fighters when he received a distress call, but was taken aback when he was told that they (fire fighters) were stoned and chased away by some youths.
Ukusare told Saturday Vanguard that the attack had to do with politics, adding, “Some people don’t want me to be in the governorship race because they feel I am a threat to them and my chances of getting there is brighter, so they want to eliminate me.
“Apparently, they had been trailing me without my knowledge. I had been away from days and just returned from Abuja. They could have been monitoring me to know I was back and came at about 9.00 pm, not knowing that I had gone out for a meeting.
When they came, they were searching the whole compound and later, they fired bombs into one of the rooms.”
According to him, “Few days before the incident, a Hilux with unidentified occupants pulled off in front of my compound and asked some persons to detach one of my campaign posters on the wall for them. They refused to come down probably because they were many people around the place at that time.
“They did not succeed and the next day, at about 11.30 pm, they came again in the same Hilux vehicle, with one of them wearing a police uniform. The one with the police uniform came down himself to detach my poster. I was told about the two visits but I wondered what a policeman would be doing with my poster.
“However, there was power outage on Thursday and at about 9.00 pm, two men rode into the compound on a motor_cycle. They detonated two fire bombs and quickly disappeared. My parents were asleep and were jolted by the explosions. My father was later rescued and when I asked of my mother, I was told she ran away too.
“The situation was tense as the fire was still on. Nobody could go into the building. It was only yesterday (Friday) morning that we found out that my mother could not make it.
She was trapped and died in the inferno with the daughter of her younger brother, who slept in the house with her,” he said.
Ukusare corroborated the statement of the DPO that some onlookers pelted the fire fighters that came to quench the fire until they returned with police reinforcement.
He said that splinters of explosives used by the attackers were picked up in the compound by the police, adding, “I will, however, leave the police to do their work.”
Though, Ukusare said the attack was politically masterminded, a police officer who asked for anonymity told Saturday Vanguard, “I am not prejudging anything but I think it was two gas cylinders that exploded. However, investigation is on, let us wait and see.”
Initially, a source said it was PDP thugs that threw explosives into house of the governorship aspirant but a PDP leader in the area who commented on the allegation said, “How can they say it is in PDP when they know they are the ones fighting themselves.” in ACN.
The Court of Appeal had just ordered a re_run and the battle is definitely between the former governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan and Chief Great Ogboru of the DPP. So, what is the business of the PDP with the ACN.
“This is a laughable because the AC candidate in the 2007 election, Chief Okocha was disqualified and I am not even sure the party will be part of the re_run, except there is a way they are going to make a case that the party is now ACN.
And even though Okocha was not validly nominated in 2007, as held by the court, somebody has been validly nominated by the party for the re_run in 2011.
Like I said, I don’t know what their plans are, but, assuming that is the agenda, it still had nothing to with the PDP. It is their internal matter,” he added.
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