By Chinenyeh Ozor, Nsukka
A former Chairman of Igbo-Eze South Local Government, Chief Dominic Ezema, has been shot by unknown gunmen at Ibagwa-Aka Community in Enugu State.

Sources said that although his attackers were yet to be identified, Chief Ezema is the chairman of a faction of the Ibagwa-Aka Community Police-Assisted Neighbourhood Watch which had polarised the town in the past few years.

Reports from the area said Chief Ezema was shot at point-blank range in front of his compound by the assailants who arrived there on a motorcycle.
According to a reliable source, Ezema was shot on the buttocks as he tried to escape from the assailants who had accosted him as he was leaning on the bonnet of his car.

Police sources told  Saturday Vanguard that, ‘’Ezema’s attackers aimed at his temple but missed it,’’ adding that ‘’the bullet hit him on the buttocks, missing his manhood narrowly.’’

The source said Ezema and his wife were going to visit a friend of the family, but decided to go back to their house to pick something.
It was learnt that it was while he was waiting for his wife at the gate that his assailants struck. Ezema who spoke to Saturday Vanguard at his hospital bed at Nsukka, said he had a premonition that he would be killed before the attack.

“Throughout the morning of that day, I was obsessed by a thought of being killed by someone. So, when two young men on motorcycle pulled up at the other side of the road, prying at me, I became suspicious and came out of the car and leaned on the bonnet, feeling very uncomfortable”, Ezema added.

Ezema who is in the intensive care unit of a private hospital, is said to be responding to treatment.
A close associate of the former Chairman It is a clear assassination, but the evil men have failed. We know where they are coming from.”