By Charles Igbo
Senator Hope Uzodimma, on Wednesday, performed one of the most difficult jobs since he was sworn-in as the Governor of Imo State. It is a burden he has carried for days – a burden which at once makes him weak, sad and emotional.
Eleven days after the gruesome murder of APC chieftain, Ahmed Gulak, a Lawyer, in Imo State, Uzodimma summoned enough courage to visit his wife and members of his family.
An eye witness told this Magazine that the visit was emotional. The Governor, the source said, was still in shock, just as he was on May, 30, 2021, the day Gulak was murdered. He was devastated, and did not leave his room thereafter.
Confirming how he felt in his first comment on Gulak’s murder, Uzodimma said he froze, literally. He disclosed that he was getting ready to go to Church, since it was a Sunday, when he received the devastating news. The news marked the end of the Church attendance for him.
During the visit to Gulak’s family where he met his mourning wife, the Governor, naturally, expressed his condolences, and that of his Government and Imolites, and promised that Gulak would get justice. He said his death would never be in vain, and that he would do everything, go to any extent, to see that the perpetrators of the heinous crime and their sponsors get the full wrath and weight of the law.
Controversy as to the how/why of Gulak’s murder has continued to rage, with allegations and counter allegations flying.
Gulak was on a National assignment to the State with the Senate Committee on the review of the 1999 Constitution when he was murdered on his way to the Imo Airport to catch his flight back to Abuja.
He was killed at Obiangwu Community, less than a 15-minute drive to the Airport.
He was the Chairman of the 2019 APC Governorship Primary in Imo State. He was the one who declared Uzodimma the winner of the Primary, a declaration, strongly protested by Uche Nwosu and the then Governor of the State, now Senator Rochas Okorocha, whose son-in-law Nwosu is.
But the Party stood by Uzodimma.
One of the speculations which made the rounds after Gulak’s murder was that it was the handiwork of the Governor, who allegedly did that because he was unable to pay Gulak a promised N10 billion, for declaring him Governor. Uzodimma was alleged to have arranged for the Cab which took Gulak to the Airport.
But Gulak’s son, Mustapha, a Medical Doctor, dismissed the rumour as “nonsensical.” He said it was an insult to his father’s memory because there was no need for any such deal, as Uzodimma won the Primary.
Moreover he emphasised, if Uzodimma was owing his father, he, Mustapha, would have known. “My father was my best friend, and we discussed businesses together. I knew everything about his businesses.”
Gulak had left Protea Hotel, Owerri, in a Cab, and had no Security details with him. It was the Hotel that called the Cab for him.
The first statement by the Imo State Police Command, signed by its Spokesman, Bala Elkana, was that Gulak was in company with two others and the driver of the Cab when he was murdered. He, also, said that the driver took a route that was strange. Both statements turned out not to be true.
He was in the Cab with a friend of his identified as Bernard – not two. According to statements made by Bernard to the Police, they were to take the Aba road to the Airport, but it was blocked. They turned, and took the Mbaise- Ngor Okpala route. The route is not strange. It is a well known route to the airport.
However, contrary to the initial report that his killers, driving a sienna, double-crossed the Cab, Bernard said the Cab ran into the killers at Obiangwu.
As they got to a sharp corner, he said, they saw two young men lying on the ground, and six others jumping up and down. Three cars were parked. He said the men stopped the Cab, checked and confirmed there was enough fuel, and asked them why they were on the road when “their group” had said nobody should be on the road.
Bernard said one of them came to his side of the car, while another went to Gulak’s side after they had ordered them down. He said they spoke Ogoni dialect which he said he understood, and suggested that may have saved him. Apparently, he spoke the language to them. While they were still discussing, the one talking to Gulak shot him, and Gulak exclaimed: “Oh my God!” and fell down.
Bernard’s story contrasts sharply with that of the Police, but they agree that some of the assailants were killed same day at Enyiogugu where they were allegedly sharing onions to people from a truck they intercepted.
According to Bernard, he recognised two of them, including the one who shot, and killed Gulak.
Whatever, Nigerians are anxious to know the truth concerning Gulak’s murder – the killers and the sponsors.
Police investigations are on – seriously, this Magazine was told.
Gulak, a former Speaker of the Adamawa House of Assembly, was a former Political Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan. He cross-carpetted to the APC in 2018.
