A would-be member of parliament in Nigeria has been shot dead hours after announcing his intention to run in next year’s general elections, but police said they could not yet say if the killing was politically motivated.
Mr. Oghogho Omoregbe, 36, was shot dead by unknown gunmen outside his rented apartment in Benin, capital of Southern Edo state, on Saturday night, the local media reported Tuesday.
Mr. Omoregbe, a civil engineer, had just returned from a political rally where he announced his intention to run for a seat in the federal House of Representatives on the platform of the opposition Action Congress (AC) – which transformed to Ac tion Congress of Nigeria (ACN) on Monday – when the gunmen shot him.
‘He just came back from the campaign on Saturday; he came home for the first time and then left again, instructing his wife to prepare food for him,’ Mr. Omoregbe’s mother-in-law, Mrs Stella Amadasun, who witnessed the shooting, was quoted as saying.
‘He came with a boy and then they prayed together before he left again and told his wife that he would be back. This was around 9pm. Later that night, we heard the sound of a car and my daughter told me that it was her husband.
‘Shortly after he opened the gate and was going back into his car to drive inside the compound, we heard him shout, Jesus, thief, then he ran into the other corner of the compound but he fell down when there was no escape route, then I ran to them and was begging that they should spare him, at least because of their one-month-old first child. Then I heard gunshots and they ran through the other side,’ she said.
Police spokesman Peter Ogboi said the motive behind the killing would only be known after the investigations ordered by state commissioner of police Kachi Udeoji.
Analysts said if the killing was politically-motivated, it could be a sign of what to expect in the run-up to the 2011 general elections.