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…As anxiety mounts
There has been no update yet concerning the kidnapped Anambra lawmaker, Hon. Justice Azuka, 19 days after he was abducted.
Azuka is the member, representing Onitsha 1 North Constituency in the Anambra State House of Assembly.
The lawmaker was abducted while returning home at Ugwunaobankpa road, Inland Town Onitsha on 24th December 2024.
The abducted lawmaker is a chieftain of the Labour Party, LP, who regained his mandate after the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Hon. Douglas Egbuna, was sacked by the court.
When CrimeFacts reached out to the Anambra police spokesperson, a Superintendent of Police, Tochukwu Ikenga confirmed on Sunday that the lawmaker has not been freed.
On 26th of December 2024, the police in Anambra State recovered a vehicle belonging to Justice Azuka, the abducted member of the State House of Assembly.
The police spokesperson in Anambra State, Tochukwu Ikenga, disclosed that operatives attached to the Inland Town Division recovered the vehicle.
He said the vehicle’s recovery followed an “intense ongoing operation” to rescue the lawmaker.
The spokesperson said the police operatives sighted the vehicle which was abandoned at Upper Iweka Road, several kilometres from the scene of the attack.
He did not disclose the vehicle’s model, but a picture attached to his statement indicated that the recovered vehicle is a Ford SUV.
The Commissioner of Police in Anambra State, Nnaghe Obono, has charged the deployed police operatives to intensify efforts to rescue the abducted lawmaker, Mr Ikenga had said.
Like other states in the South-East, Anambra has witnessed increased attacks by gunmen in recent years.
Members and former members of the state Assembly had been targeted by the armed hoodlums terrorising the state.
On 21 May 2022, for instance, gunmen abducted and then beheaded Okechukwu Okoye, a lawmaker representing Aguata 2 Constituency in the Anambra House of Assembly.
Mr Okoye was killed alongside his aide, Cyril Chiegboka, six days after they were abducted along Aguluzigbo Road, Anaocha Local Government Area of the state.
Again, gunmen abducted Uzozie Chukwujekwu, a Special Adviser to a former Chairperson of Nnewi South Council Area and also shot his only son just a few hours after the news of the beheading of Mr Okoye went public.
Within the same year, two former members of the Anambra House of Assembly were abducted and then killed in separate attacks.
Pascal Arogorn Ibe
