How gunmen attacked me, killed my orderlies – Soludo

A former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and Professor of Econometrics, Charles Soludo, Thursday narrated how gunmen, at a political gathering in his home state in Anambra State, attacked him and killed three policemen attached to him on Thursday.

Soludo, a governorship aspirant in the November 6 race under the platform of All Progressives Grand Alliance, was at a meeting with youths at Isuofia community when the gunmen struck.

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Featuring last night on Channels Television’s Programme, Politics Today, Soludo described the incident as barbaric, horrible and senseless.

He narrated: “We were having an interactive town-hall meeting. We finished the diocesan crescent mass at about 2 pm, and by 4:00 pm, they scheduled an interactive town-hall meeting with the Isuofia youths.

“And by the way, Isuofia happens to be my hometown… I’m a village boy; this is where I feel safest anywhere in the world. I walk the streets, I jog on the streets, I take long walks, I mean I’m everywhere as a village boy as it were.

“With this interactive session with over a thousand youths seated, and I was just making preliminary remarks to open up the interactive session with other dignitaries from the community, commissioners and members of the House of Assembly, former commissioners, former members of the house, and several other dignitaries were in attendance.

“And just as I was about to wrap up, and for them now to open up comments, questions and answers, I heard gunshots. At first, I thought maybe the policemen were shooting in the air and concurring with the kind of exuberance in the hall itself…

“And until I began to hear people screaming, and all of that, and everyone scampered for safety, but then when it was all over, it took several minutes about 10 to 15 minutes of continuous gun battle, going back and forth…stopping and starting again.

“By the time we all came back, we saw three dead bodies lying in the pool of their blood – they were the three policemen… and like I said earlier, may God grant their soul eternal rest… we’ll continue to pray and support the families.

“And then, the commissioner was abducted. I understand that when they ran and jumped the fence, some people grabbed and took him away… our prayers are with him. We pray for his safe return.

“The DSS, police, army and civil defense were all in my house… I was totally unhurt in any way.”

Asked if the attack was politically motivated, Soludo said: “I think there are all kinds of theories as it were, I do not want to prejudge or preempt the investigation that is ongoing because I understand some persons have been apprehended and also providing useful information.”