Who wants Dr Innocent Barikor, the Deputy Governor-ship candid-ate of the APC in Rivers State dead?
This is the question that most people are asking and the puzzle that the Police Command is trying very hard to crack.
The Police in Rivers State, multiple sources close to the force say, has swung swiftly into action in a bid to find necessary clues that detectives need to unveil the actual reason behind Tuesday’s attempt to kill the gubernatorial running mate of the APC.
There are strong indications that men of the Rivers State Police Command have visited the scene of the incident for an on the spot assessment of the crime scene.
Tonye Cole’s Deputy narrowly escaped death Tuesday night as he stepped out of a building where he had gone to attend a meeting.
Tonye Cole, APC guber candidate
But the police detail attached to him, Inspector Dogo Usman Ayuba, was not so lucky on a night suspected assassins laid seige.
He was killed on the spot, his tummy riddled with bullets.
The meeting that took the running mate out of his home had held at an undisclosed venue, somewhere in GRA.
As at the time of filing this report, the identities of those who attended the same meeting with Barikor have not been made public although police may have obtained vital information.
It is still not known at this time who would want Barikor dead and why.
From the picture that is emerging, there are two possible scenarios to consider, security analysts tell the Telegraph.
First is the possibility that Barikor may have unconsciously walked into a carefully laid ambush.
This doesn’t look likely and there are no facts in the open at this time to suggest such a possibility.
“But the fact that the suspected assassins, if they were truly assassins, had enough time to choose their spot by the house and sufficiently take aim at possible human targets may likely give the police which is investigating the matter some food for thought”, a security expert stated.
“Our knowledge of the fact that Kidnappers oftentimes trail their victims over long distances and some of the time, go the extra mile to kill, in order to snatch their victims might just provide a possible lead to consider”, another security analyst noted.
Given his elevation to a position of worth, if the APC were to able to pull off a win in 2023, Barikor in 2022 would be worth millions if he were to find himself in a kidnapper’s den.
Meanwhile, the Port Harcourt Telegraph has obtained pictures of the young cop who died in the line of duty, protecting Dr Barikor of the APC.
Some of the graphic images showing how the gruesome murder was committed are really disturbing;
Dogo Usman Ayuba
Inspector Dogo Usman Ayuba.
⁹ Where the bullet hit him
We have learnt through a source that he may have been the first to step out into the open after the meeting ended.
It would appear he got into the line of fire and was cut down by a hail of bullets, or was killed by those who are at large in order to have what could pass as unlimited access to the potential victim of the attack.
Until his sudden death, Ayuba worked within the Operations Department of the Rivers State Police Command.
Close associates within the police as well as his family members are in agony as a result of his demise.
Within the Rivers APC, many are trying very hard to make sense of the entire episode.
The Ogoni nation would have lost an illustrious son if something untoward had happened to Barikor.
But the APC which is mourning the death of the police inspector would have faced a major setback.
Those who know Barikor say he is easy going. There are hints that he is a friend to several people with whom he shares ties in social circles.
At the communal level, he is believed to be quite active, participating in the activities of MOSOP and other Ogoni groups.
Nobody is sure what could have been behind Tuesday’s deadly attack or who could have had a hand, but we understand that the police who are well placed to unravel what possibly led to the incident are intensifying their investigation.
Somehow, those who are behind the killing of Inspector Ayuba may have fetched what an African proverb describes as an ant-infested-wood.
The Police never forgets. It is worse when one of its own is killed on the line of duty by people who ought to have no access to guns.