By Celestine Okafor (Editor-in-Chief NNL)
The Department of State Services (DSS), has denied allegations that operatives of the State Security carried out the gruesome murder of a renowned Enugu-based medical doctor, Dr. Chike Akunyili.
Akunyili was assassinated on Tuesday, at Nkpor, near Onitsha, in Idemmili North Local Government Area of Anambra state.
The Security Service also described as ridiculous, outright “spurious” and “illogical”, the insinuation that it was responsible for the death of the husband of late Prof Dora Nkemdilim Akunyili, a former Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and Nigeria’s former Minister of Information and National Orientation.
Reacting to a trending social media video claiming that the “Nigerian DSS” murdered security escorts at Nkpor, Anambra State on Tuesday, September 28, 2021, the State Security Organization stated that there was no basis for the DSS to kill the Medical Doctor and/or fellow law enforcement agents, maintaining that the DSS cherishes life and believes in the rule of law.
In a statement on Wednesday night, September 29, 2021, Spokesman of the DSS, Dr Peter Afunnanya, warned the Nigerian and International public to be “wary of the false narratives by those desirous of using it (the Service) to cover up their heinous acts. The operations of these hostile elements are already well known in the public space and to the discerning.
“Moreover, their desperate effort to divert attention or deploy reverse psychology to deceive unsuspecting members of the public has become a stock in trade that has defined their patterns and trends. It is a matter of time before the law will catch up with them”.
Dr. Afunnanya however assured that the Service and sister agencies “will not relent in tracking down those behind the breakdown of law and order in parts of the country with a view to bringing them to justice”.
Dr. Chike Akunyili, the widower of the late NAFDAC’s former Director-General, Professor Dora Akunyili, who died of malignant cancer in an Indian hospital in 2014, was killed by yet gunmen at Nkpor, in the Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State on Tuesday.
He was alleged to be on the way back to his Enugu base from his wife’s memorial lecture event at Onitsha where she was said to have been honored by the University of Nigeria Nsukka Alumni Association (UNAA) at the Sharon Hall, All Saints Cathedral, Onitsha.
Dr Chike Akunyili was said to have attended the event with one of his sons, Obumneme Akunyili. The physician was also reported to have been felled along with his personal driver known as Aloysius, including his police orderly and a priest.
Already, the remains of the Chief Medical Director of St. Leo Hospital located along Abakpa-Nike Road, Enugu, and other victims had been deposited at the hospital morgue ahead of burial and police probe of the circumstances of his assassination.
A social media video trending on various platforms on Wednesday morning showed late Dr. Chike Akunyili, a father of six children and a grandfather, on black suits and tie lying down helplessly on the roadside with mortal gunshot wounds on his face and writhing in severe pains before giving up the ghost.
Meanwhile, the killing of Dr Chike Akunyili has left his people of Agulu Community in Anambra state, his wife’s community, Nanka, and the entire country in deep mourning. His staff members and numerous patients at St. Leo Hospital, one of biggest private Specialist Health Center in Enugu, are also not left out in this moment of grief.
Dr Akunyili, a first class graduate in medical sciences, was renown for devoting his professional career in treating fellow Nigerian citizens, irrespective of their tribe, tongue or creed, even on charitable grounds. The demise of Akunyili who holds the Agulu traditional title of ‘Agbalanze’ dominated discussions especially in his Agulu community, as they lamented his exit.
Beyond blaming the DSS for the killing of Dr Chike Akunyili, the pro-Biafra group in the South East Nigeria, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) led by detained Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, had equally been accused of being responsible for the murder of late Dora Akunyili’s husband.
But IPOB has already denied that the group had any hand in the killing and those other victims. In a swift reaction on Wednesday by its spokesman, Comrade Emma Powerful, shortly after the news of the murder spread like wildfire, he alleged that those who allegedly killed the late Dora, were still after her family.
He said IPOB is a known organizations which Nigerians are conversant with their modus operandi. Emma Powerful also regrets why people with evil agenda to the people of Biafra still link IPOB to the gun men. He explained that the group had no intention of precipitating any crisis and warned those linking the group to the killings by unknown gunmen to desist from such false allegations.
“Dora Akunyili husband is not our problem and cannot be. Let the Anambra people and Biafrans know that we have no business with Mazi Chike Akunyili.
“Those who poisoned his wife are still after his family because they have a mission to finish the family. Late Prof. Dora Akunyili was killed with poison by those who saw her as a stumbling block. Those who poisoned Dora wants to link IPOB with the death of her husband.
“It is important to note that IPOB is not unknown gunmen. We have disassociated ourselves from this group of unknown gunmen but people with evil agenda to the people of Biafra are still linking IPOB to this murderous group.
“IPOB doesn’t know anything about Dora Akunyili’s husband’s murder because we are not unknown gunmen. ESN (Eastern Security Network) was set up to protect and secure our mothers and sisters who go to the farms.
“Those doing this are trying to do it so that our people will not support IPOB, but Biafrans are wiser and know why traitors are doing it. We want to make it clear to them that IPOB is not behind the killing going on in Anambra State. It is politicians killing people in the state.
“IPOB has no intention of fermenting trouble in our land. Please, we beg those linking us to this madness to desist because they will regret their actions soon. Let our people never blame IPOB when we get it because we must surely get those behind this criminal activity in our name,” the statement said.
Credit: Nigerian News Leader (NNL).
