There appears
to be no respite yet for Aloysius Ikegwuonwu, popularly called Bishop, the
36-year-old magnate and philanthropist, said to be the target of a mass murder
that took place at St Phillips Catholic Church, Ozubulu, in Ekwusigo Local
Government Area of Nigeria’s southeast state of Anambra on Sunday, August 6,
2017.
Though he had distanced himself from the incident, which claimed
the life of his father and 12 others, with 18 more hospitalised, security
agencies are currently going through over suspects’ statements and intelligence
reports to establish his suspected links to some drug syndicates believed to be
behind the deadly attack.
For the
second time in a week, officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency,
NDLEA on Friday told Saturday Sun that
the agency was already getting cooperation from its foreign partners on their
interest in ‘Bishop’ and his suspected links to drug trade in South Africa.
Beside the anti-drug agency, the police in Anambra were said to have
interrogated ‘Bishop’ for about three hours Thursday night. The controversial
businessman was said to have driven into the Command headquarters in Awka
around 7pm and didn’t leave till around 10pm.
Journalists
who yesterday laid seige at the Anambra State Police Headquarters, Awka possibly
to meet and extract interview from Ikegwuonwu were disappointed as he did not
show up.
The
State Police Public Relations Officer, Nkiruka Nwode had earlier in the week
told newsmen that the Command had invited Ikegwuonwu to come yesterday adding
that refusal to honour the invitation would amount to disobedience to
constituted authority.
When
newsmen waited to no avail and could not also see the Commissioner of Police,
Garba Umar, calls were put through to him but his response was that he was away
on a security meeting in Abuja. When contacted also, the PPRO, Nwode denied
knowledge of the invitation of Ikegwuonwu which she earlier confirmed.
But a
source at the Command headquarters told Saturday
Sun that Ikegwuonwu visited the Command Thursday night apparently
because of the Police, Commissioner’s travel yesterday.
The
police source said, “the ‘Bishop’ was here yesterday (Thursday) around 7pm and
was here till around 10pm, in fact he left the same time with the CP. I
think his coming yesterday instead of today (Friday) might be because the CP
was going to travel today. He must have told the CP his own side of the story.”
Attempts to reach Ikegwuonwu’s spokesman to confirm the development last night
proved abortive as his number could not be reached.
But
speaking to Saturday Sun on the
phone yesterday, a top official of the NDLEA who pleaded anonymity because of
the sensitive nature of the investigation, confirmed that “we are investigating
the man ‘Bishop’ and his alleged links to drug trade. We are only working in
the background for now to allow the police handle the primary incident, which
is murder. We are in touch and getting cooperation from our international
partners on this because we need evidence to do the needful from this end.
This, you will recall our chairman hinted on a radio link programme last
weekend.”
The
Principal Staff Officer, Public Affairs, at the NDLEA, Jonah Achema, had also
last week given a similar assurance. “Let me assure you that we are following
the story of the so-called drug deals outside the shores of Nigeria. We
are already linking up with our international collaborators and respective
countries to establish the veracity of their drug activities. For now, that is
the level we are. We are focusing our searchlight everywhere. It is
regrettable that this measure of violence is happening in this part of the
world. We assure Nigerians that if it is drug related, we will not spare any
effort to see to the end and we will deal decisively with anybody involved,
whether high or low. It is also a call to rekindle the drug war by all
stakeholders in the country.”
- Sun News
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