Benue ACN Chieftain Assassinated

Sahara Reporters

14 May 2011

Benue ACN Chieftain Assassinated

By Citizen Reports

A chieftain of the ACN in Benue Charles Ayede was this evening gunned down by suspected assassins. Ayeded and the Benue ACN governorship candidate in the just concluded elections, Professor Steve Ugbah were on their way to Makurdi. The shooting also injured one of Professor Ugbah's strong supporter, Mr Adaa Maagbe.

Assailants opened fire on the team near Kadarko in Nasawara state, 25 minutes away from Makurdi the Benue state capital.

Eyewitness reports said Ayede and Mr Maagbe were riding ahead of Prof. Ugbah when the assassins accosted and killed Ayede. Mr Ayede died on the spot, while Maagbe got shot in the hand. Mr Maagbe  ran into the bush when their car came to a stop and immediately told Prof Ugbah to make a detour back to Lafia, the capital of Nasarawa State. From the nature of the attack, it was clear the assailants were out to kill Prof. Ugbah.

It is widely believed that the ACN candidate clearly defeated Governor Gabriel Suswam in the April 26th Gubernatorial elections, but Suswam characteristically connived with cahoots David Mark, the current Nigerian Senate president and dubious Independent National Electoral Commission officials led by Nasir Ayinlara to   declare the election in the governor's favour of Suswam. The scale of rigging by the People's Democratic Party (PDP)  in the Benue election was so widespread that political observers  noted it would not take tribunal judges more than a few days to  toss Governor Suswam out of power.