REACTIONS continue to pour-in from across the country following the news of the assassination of the Kwara State police commissioner, Mr. Chinwe Asadu, who was killed by gunmen who have yet to be identified.
The Police boss was killed Saturday night at gunpoint in his car at Amorji Nike, near the densely populated Abakpa Nike area in Enugu East local government area within the state capital.
The orderly of the commissioner and driver escaped the attack but they sustained gunshot wounds and they are reported to be in a critical state at the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu.
Kwara State Governor, Dr Abdulfatah Ahmed has described the murder of Mr Asadu as shocking and unfortunate.
A statement issued by the state government noted that “it is particularly painful that late CP Asadu has become another index in the annals of the growing national insecurity, adding that it has become very expedient for Nigerians to rally round in finding enduring solution to the national malaise of insecurity.”
The statement described the death of Mr. Asadu as a huge lose not only to the Nigeria Police but the Kwara State security apparatus in particular as he exhibited high sense of discipline and professionalism in the course of duty in the State.
”Late CP Chinwe Asadu , in the discharge of his duty in Kwara state contributed immensely to the sustenance of peace in the state and in the upholding of our values as a state of harmony” the statement read.
Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police, Mr Mohammed Abubakar, on Sunday promised to do `everything’ possible to apprehend and bring to book the killers of Chinwike Asadu, Commissioner of Police in Kwara.
In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, CSP Frank Mba, the Deputy Force Public Relations Officer, quoted the IG as saying that the circumstance surrounding the death of the late commissioner was `most unfortunate and saddening’.
“Those who murdered Asadu have murdered sleep, they will find no rest, they will find no peace, they will find no comfort and they will find no hiding place until they are brought to justice,” Mba quoted the IG as saying.
Mba said the IG had also ordered the commissioner of police in Enugu State to leave no stone unturned in arresting and bringing the perpetrators of the crime to justice.
He said Abubakar had also directed detectives from the Police Homicide Unit as well as the Special Anti-Robbery Squad to provide technical support to Enugu State command in efforts to apprehend the killers.
Asked if the police had made any arrest in connection with the crime, Mba said he could not confirm that.
“I cannot confirm that, this is deliberate because we want to focus on our investigation,” he said.
The late commissioner was reportedly shot dead in his residence in Enugu on Saturday night.
Reports from the state have it that, Mr Asadu who was on a visit to Enugu-his state of origin- had a visitor and he decided to escort the guest in his own vehicle with only his driver and Orderly coming along with him.
While the trio were returning to the Commissioner’s residence, they reportedly noticed a bus trailing their vehicle and as they veered into the street, the gunmen who must have laid an ambush for the Commissioner a few metres away from his private residence, started firing at the vehicle from the rear.
It was during the sporadic shooting that the Mr Asadu was killed on the spot while the Police Orderly posted to guard the CP’s residence from Abakpa Police Division, sustained bullet wound all over his body and his rifle taken away before the gunmen escaped.
The official escort team that came with the Commissioner from Kwara State Police Command that were left behind in his compound, got wind of the attack but not until the gunmen had routed their escape.
They quickly rushed the Commissioner and his aides who were in a pool of blood to the Orthopaedic Hospital but it was at the hospital that Police boss was confirmed dead.
He reportedly gave up the ghost before arriving at the hospital.
His aides who were badly wounded were immediately admitted but we gather that they are in a critical state.