FLASHBACK: How Soludo was almost killed months before his hard fought victory

About eights month to the November 6, 2021, governorship election in Anambra State, Charles Chukwuma Soludo, then aspirant of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), was attacked by gunmen.

The ex-CBN governor was attacked in his hometown in Isuofia, Aguata Local Government Area of the state, while having an interactive session with youths of the community, on March 31, 2021.

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Three of his police escorts were killed during the attack, while a commissioner in Anambra State, Emeka Ezenwanne, was abducted but later released.

Speaking a day after the incident, Soludo had said, “We were having an interactive session and we finished the mass about 4pm and the scheduled interactive meeting with the Isuofia youths. By the way, Isuofia happened to be my hometown. I’m a village boy and this is where I feel safest anywhere in the world. I walk the street, I jog in my community, I take long walk, I am everywhere as a village boy.

“With this interactive session, there were over a thousand youths seated and I was just making preliminary remarks to open up the interactive session with other dignitaries from the communities, commissioners and members of the house of assembly. And just as I was about to wrap up and I said, ‘Finally!’ for them to open up for comments and answers, gunshots! At first, I thought may be the policemen were shooting in the air with the kind of exuberance in the hall until I began to hear people screaming and we all scampered for safety.

“It took more than 10, 15 minutes of continuous gun battle. By the time we all came back, we saw three bodies there lying in the pool of their blood – they were the three policemen. May God grant their souls eternal rest. We will continue to pray and support their families. I was totally unhurt, not in anyway hurt.”

When asked whether the attack was linked with his ambition to become Anambra governor, the ex-CBN governor said, “I am friend with everybody contesting the office. I don’t think the office is worth the blood of even a chicken let alone a human being. I will be shocked that it was politically motivated and that it was aimed directly at me.”