By Jimitota Onoyume, Assistant News Editor

PORT HARCOURT: The governorship and state assembly elections have come and gone but some families in Rivers state will continue to be haunted by the very sad memories of April 11 and its aftermath. It was a day they lost their loved ones to electoral violence.

late alison

Among those  reportedly killed that day was a youth leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ogba Egbema Ndoni Local Government Area, Mr Clever O. Community sources said he was shot by suspected political thugs at a ward in the area.

In Buguma, it was a similar story. An aide to a former militant leader was also shot dead on the election day. Community sources gave his name as Iminabo.

In Eche Local Government Area , Hope Alison of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was allegedly hacked to death by suspected political thugs on the election day. His blood brother, Miracle Alison, said killers of his brother went to the morgue where his remains were deposited and set the corpse on fire.

He narrated the story of what allegedly happened to Vanguard Metro, VM. “God in heaven knows that my late brother had nothing to give me and I had nothing to give him.

Coming of the assassins

Seeing him as an elder brother made me happy. That is the only joy I derived from him as my senior brother. His name is Hope Alison. And my name is Alison Miracle.

“My brother told me sometime ago that he had been receiving threats from people for being a member of PDP. They even offered him money which he rejected. He made it clear to all that he was a die-hard PDP member. They had tried to kill him in the past. Assassins came to his house, met me and were asking for him but he escaped. This happened in August last year. But something very sad happened that day. Before they left, the assassins hit my brother’s wife with a very hard object because she was screaming that the assassins should leave me alone when she saw that they were trying to drag me away. She died from what they did. The assassins later moved to my brother’s shop and took everything there.

“This year they came to my father’s house again and set it ablaze.  They also beat my dad mercilessly. My father is a title holder, Eze Alison, the Ochimba 1 of Umukwe. He received Nyesom Ezebunwa Wike when he came to our place. My dad even gave him a title, the “Light of Rivers State”. The assassins when they came demanded for the money Wike allegedly gave him. But my father told them he was not given any money. They beat him mercilessly. Nobody lives in our house now. They  said they will not rest until they wipe out my entire family. It is only God that has kept us till date.

“My brother was killed on April 11 at Ochokochi on the day of the election. They killed him because he was protecting his party’s votes. His corpse was deposited at the mortuary in Iminyi Igbodo Etche. But those who killed him went to the mortuary where his body was kept and burnt it.

My brother’s death was political. My brother is not a cultist. My mother is alive but not strong.  My brother was about 32 years when he died; he left a son and three daughters. “

Miracle said he was still in hiding because those allegedly behind his  brother’s killing have threatened to come for him.  He also enjoined the Governor-Elect, Nyesom Wike and the PDP, to come to the aid of his late brother’s four children.” Things have been very tough for all of us. Ezebunwon and the PDP should assist my late brother’s children. He should not die in vain,” he pleaded.

There have been accusations and counter-accusations among some political parties in the state over the killings.  Some  killings were also recorded  before the general elections which the Police  attributed to rivalry among cult groups, but the APC said they were politically motivated

Governor Chibuike Amaechi on his part has set up a commission of inquiry to unravel mysteries around these alleged political killings.  The 11-man committee headed by Professor Chidi Odinkalu, Chairman National Human Rights Commission, was given 30 days to turn in its report.

According to Governor Amaechi, the commission is to uncover why they were killed, who killed them and under what circumstance.