Late politician's lawyer, associates allege assassination

The controversy surrounding the death of a governorship candidate in the April 26 election in Delta State, Chief Ogbe Onokpite, deepened on Monday when his lawyer, Mr. Festus Keyamo, and some of the deceaseds associates alleged that his murder was premeditated.Onokpite of the Citizens Popular Party was a power broker in the state before he was allegedly shot by the police in his hotel on Saturday.Although, the Commissioner of Police, Mr Mamman Tsafe, maintained that the politician was killed when he resisted arrest at his Beeland Hotel, along Udu/Orhuwhorun Road, Keyamo said he was assassinated.Onokpite, according to the police, sustained serious wounds and gave up the ghost on the way to the hospital. Police authorities alleged that he was a criminal and a gun-runner.However, Keyamo, who addressed journalists in Warri, maintained that Onokpite, was set up for assassination.He said, "From the account we have, these boys went to Chief Onokpites hotel, knocked without any question and shot him. He was in pain asking what he had done. He was shot in the leg and chest and left to bleed to death."This is what the police do to defend the citizens of this country. They stripped him naked and this is why we want the world to know. Its Onokpite today, it can be another person tomorrow. This is a clear case of assassination and we must all rise to condemn it."Keyamo accused the police of "taking the law into their hands" and vowed to petition the Inspector- General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, on the need for a coroners inquest into the politicians death.In his reaction, former Secretary-General of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, Chief Frank Kokori, argued that the death was politically- motivated.Kokori said, "This is barbaric and I see it as naked murder. This is extra-judicial killing. I feel it has political undertone. This country is going back to the Stone Age."He was an unrepentant critic of the corruption going on in the government in the state. All we have is an evil government. These criminals must be brought to book. He was shot without a chance to talk. A man who has been cleared for election twice is a responsible person."Meanwhile, the Forum for Justice and Human Rights Defence, has condemned what it termed, "a dastardly act."The National Coordinator of the group, Mr. Oghenejabor Ikimi, in a statement in Warri, said. "We received with horror the dastardly murder of Chief Ogbe in his hotel room and we condemn same as it is another case of gross abuse of power."
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