By Samuel Oyadongha & Emem Idio, Yenagoa

Executive Secretary of the Bayelsa State Independent Electoral Commission, BYSIEC, Chief Simeon Akpeni, was, Friday night, gunned down at the Yenizue-Gene suburb of Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, by armed men suspected to be assassins.

The  incident, which triggered panic among residents, occurred along the popular Otiotio Road at about 9pm.

The victim was an indigene of Ofoni community in Sagbama local government area of the state.

Akpeni was said to have been accosted by three armed men in front of his house who shot him on the head at close range.

Sunday Vanguard learnt that the deceased, after returning to Yenagoa from Mbiama where he and his brother had a business transaction, had attended a political meeting before going home.

It was further learnt that, shortly before he was killed, he got a call from someone who identified himself as an engineer and requested him to come for a meeting.

He was said to have left the house and called the number of the engineer repeatedly but when the number was not going through he returned home.

Akpeni was reportedly ambushed by three armed men who opened fire on him in front of his house as he alighted from his car killing him on the spot.

The sound of the gunshot was said to have attracted residents who rushed to the scene only to meet his lifeless body in his own pool of blood.

A family source, who spoke anonymously, described the death as a big blow to their community.

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr Valentine Ntomchuckwu, was said to have visited the family on hearing about the incident.

The commissioner, in an interview, said he viewed the incident as an assassination from the circumstances of the death, especially since the assailants did not take anything away after shooting him.

He explained that the wife of the deceased narrated how he was shot in the head and how the assailants escaped through the other end of the street.

Bayelsa State Police Command spokesman, Alex Akhigbe, DSP, who also confirmed the incident, said the police had commenced  investigation.