Less than 24 hours after President Muhammadu Buhari ordered investigation into the gruesome murder of a women leader of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kogi State, the police have disclosed that six suspects have been arrested.
The 60-year-old Salome Abuh, who was the PDP women leader of Ochadamu Ward in Ofu Local Government Area of the state, had her house set on fire, while she was inside, by political thugs allegedly belonging to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) last week Monday.
The incident was believed to be a reprisal attack over the violence-ridden gubernatorial election in the state.
In a short message sent to EQUITYNEWS.NG on Monday morning, the Kogi State police spokesperson, Williams Aya, a deputy superintendent of police, said “six suspects have been arrested while investigation was still ongoing.”
Mr Aya’s terse message was a response to EQUITYNEWS.NG’ persistent enquiry into the update on the heinous crime.
But the police spokesman did not give details on the arrested suspects and where they were picked up over the incident. He did not also reveal when the arrest was made, and when the suspects would be charged to court. He, however, told the News Agency of Nigeria that the suspects were arrested last Friday.
President Buhari had on Sunday, in a statement issued on his behalf by his media aide, Femi Adesina, condemned the murder of Mrs. Abuh.
“President Muhammadu Buhari expects scrupulous investigation into the heinous murder of Madam Achejuh Abuh, Woman Leader of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Wada/Aro campaign council, in the just concluded gubernatorial election in Kogi State,” Mr Adesina said.
“The president decries whatever could spur anyone to take the life of another human being, particularly a woman, who was burnt to death in her home in the most gruesome manner.”
Mr Buhari charged “all security agencies involved in the investigation to do a thorough and expeditious job on the matter, so that justice could be served without fear or favour.”
“We must learn to behave decently, whether during elections or at other times. No life should be taken wantonly under any guise, and the fact that this reprehensible act occurred two days after voting shows primitive behaviour, which should not be accepted in a decent society,” the statement read in part.
Mr Adesina said Mr Buhari sympathizes with the family of the deceased and vowed that the law would catch up with the malefactors and justice would be done.
Any descent to barbarism, as was visited on the PDP Woman Leader, President Buhari says, has gone out of the realm of politics, and is pure criminality and bestiality, the spokesman said.
“Such evildoers must be brought to justice, irrespective of whatever allegiances they hold,” Mr Buhari was quoted as saying.