'Give me justice’, widower of slain Kogi PDP Woman Leader cries out

Elder Simeon Babani Seidu Abuh, widower of the slain Peoples Democratic Party PDP Woman Leader in Ofu Local Government Area of Kogi State, Hon. Salome Acheju Abuh has again cried out to President Muhammadu Buhari, the Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello and international agencies, demanding justice for the gruesome killing of his wife in late 2019.

Abuh in a statement issued Friday in Abuja recalled that his wife was “burnt alive” and “four fully furnished houses in his family compound were also burnt down, with the fifth made inhabitable, on Monday, 18th November 2019 by the All Progressive Congress APC thugs, chanting GYB 4+4 and shooting sporadically, after the declaration of the election results in favour of the APC”.

While he begged the United Nations and other international bodies to support his quest for justice, Elder Abuh asked President Buhari to 

“graciously direct sincere and comprehensive investigations with a view to ensuring that justice prevails, no matter who may be involved, including the sponsors of these dastardly acts”.

He also asked the president to treat the homelessness of his family as an emergency, by reconstructing his burnt houses and resettling the family. Explaining how far the case has gone, the widower said;

 “you are also aware of the court judgment delivered at the High Court of Justice, Idah, Kogi State on the 23rd March 2021, where only one person, Ocholi Edicha was arraigned and found guilty of all five-count charges with regard to the burning alive of my late wife, and burning down of 4 houses (not huts/tents); including looting/burning down of some other PDP stakeholders houses in the community, for which he is to serve twelve and a half years jail term.

“The points I want to make here are: Is it possible for one person to commit such magnitude of destruction of life and properties in our compound and other key PDP stakeholders houses in the community within such a few hours?

“Kogi State Police Command paraded six boys, including Ocholi Edicha who were said to have confessed to the crime. Surprisingly, five were charged with armed robbery and only Ocholi Edicha became the murderer and arsonist. Police is our friend, Police is their friend.

“Why were the others named not arrested and prosecuted? The police are our Friend. The Court is not a Father Christmas. 

The Court acted according to the information from our Friends, the Nigerian Police”, he stated.

He urged the government to ensure that the perpetrators including their sponsors are brought to book to serve as deterrence to others.

Abu equally urged the government to immortalize his wife as a political celebrity who paid the supreme price for the sustenance of democracy in Nigeria, 

“judging by the gruesome manner by which she was murdered (burnt alive) by political party thugs in her own house and the burning down of four buildings in the family house.

“It is important to add that my younger sister whom we brought up and whose breast cancer ailment we had been managing, died of shock after three months of my wife’s cruel murder. She cried always, ‘

oh sister, aah, why sister, what did she do to them?’ 

A brother-in-law died of shock, six months after. My wife’s mother felt shocked, we were only able to manage her for one year after her daughter’s cruel murder. She died in December 2020 – one year after”, he lamented.

Mrs Abuh was burnt alive on 18th, November 2019 in her matrimonial home by political thugs, barely 48 hours after the stars governorship election.

Vanguard News Nigeria