By Charles Igbo
Ahmed Gulak, a Northern elite, and APC Chieftain, who was murdered Sunday morning on his way to Imo Airport, perhaps had a premonition of death.
He did everything to avoid it.
From the way he dressed, to his choice of using a Cab, instead of a Government vehicle, to choosing to travel without any security protection, it is obvious Gulak did not want to draw any attention to himself.
A source close to Gulak said he rarely dressed in jeans and T- shirt unless he was relaxing at home. But that was how he dressed on his way to the Airport. “He deliberately dressed-down,” the source told this magazine. “He was a babariga man, or Kaftan”, he added.
Gulak also could have used any car of his choice from Government House Owerri, and a horde of security agents and a security driver. But he did neither.
Security sources say that was a big mistake on his part.
The sources say it was obvious those who killed him trailed him from the hotel, and that if he had a trained security driver with him, and security details, they would have noticed that they were being trailed. “Trained security drivers are important in such circumstances”, they noted.
Another source close to the late Gulak said he chose to dress-down and go to the Airport in a low profile manner because of the security situation in the State.
“Using a Government vehicle was dangerous for him, and using security men, he felt, was worse considering the incessant attacks on Security personnel in Imo. He felt safer going to the Airport the way he did. If he had known, but that is now a big if. It was a catch 22 situation for him. Finally, it was his choice.”
Another source attributed the incident to the sit-at-home order by the Leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. But not a few people dismissed that, pointing out that “IPOB allowed movement of people on Sunday to allow people go to Church, significant as May 30 is. IPOB shifted the no-movement order to Monday, May 31, 2021. So, there was no restriction of movement to flout.”
The insecurity in Imo State has been unprecedented, with so many killings, torching and destruction of Government facilities by the now familiar and notoriously called “unknown gunmen.”
Gulak’s murder is the most high profile since the killings began.
A former Speaker of the Adamawa House of Assembly, former Senior Special Adviser to former Vice President Abubakar Atiku, and a former Political Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan, the Northern Youths Council of Nigeria, NYCN, is threatening revenge.
