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A legal practitioner based in Owerri, the Imo State capital, Uche Ejimonye, has narrated how gunmen killed his father-in-law, Valentine Enwerem, and kidnapped two Catholic priests.
The lawyer, in a statement addressed to his colleagues, on Monday, said the killers of his father-in-law trailed him from Amaraku, in Isiala Mbano Local Government Area of the state to Orji, where his father-in-law and the two priests were caught up in a traffic gridlock.
Ejimonye, who noted that the incident happened on Friday evening, said the gunmen shot his father-in-law several times and abducted the two Catholic priests.
“I wish to announce the demise and sudden death of my father-in-law, Valentine Enwere, popularly known as ‘Oga Val’ at Orji Mechanic Village.
“He was shot dead by kidnappers at Orji after fleeing from them from Amaraku to Owerri and surviving the series of gunshots at his vehicle, but was caught up by the hold-up at Orji, but on attempt to escape after coming down from his vehicle, he was shot five times at the back.
“The kidnappers then left with the two Reverend Fathers that were with him in the car and zoomed off.
“Attempt by passers-by to rescue him and take him to the hospital proved abortive as he died on the way to the hospital.
“It is really regrettable on the situation of this our state and what it has turned into,” Ejimonye wrote.
The lawyer noted that the incident had been reported at the Anti-kidnapping Unit of the Imo State Police Command.
He also added that his father-in-law was the person who could have known the identities of the kidnapped Catholic priests and the diocese they were from.