Otunba Dipo Dina had received “one or two threatening letters” from a Strike Force of Otunba Gbenga Daniel.
The Vice-President, Goodluck Jonathan has directed the Inspector General Police, Mr Ogbonnaya Onovo to fish out the killers the AC gubernatorial candidate in Ogun State; Dipo Dina.
The Action Congress governorship candidate in the 2007 elections in Ogun State, Otunba Dipo Dina, was late on Monday evening shot dead by yet unknown gunmen near Sango Ota.
Goodluck directed Onovo to send daily briefing on the investigations to his office until the killers are brought to book
Dina, according to security sources, was attacked while returning from Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, to his home in Lagos.
An aide of the politician said that Dina, who was locked in a fierce legal battle with the Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, over the outcome of the 2007 poll, died from the wounds he sustained in the gun attack.
It has also been revealed that Otunba Dipo Dina had received “one or two threatening letters” from a Strike Force and the henchmen of Otunba Gbenga Daniel.
A source said if the Police really want to uncover the killers of Dipo, all eyes should be in the direction of the Ogun State government House.
The source told Elombah.com that in 2006, one Dele Arojo a co-contestant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) was gunned down in Lagos thus clearing the way for Gnenga Daniel to emerge as the flag bearer of the PDP in Ogun State.
In a statement, The Vice-President said: “We are committed to ensuring that the days where our citizens, whether prominent or not, are casually felled by gunmen of whatever description, are gone forever,” said Jonathan in a statement signed by his Spokesman Ima Niboro last night.
“The relevant intelligence agencies must rise to the occasion; they must find and arrest those behind this dastardly act and by their punishment, signal to their kind that this administration will not tolerate killings of any sort”.
National Publicity Secretary of the AC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said whether assassination or robbery, the latest killing had shown the level of insecurity in the country.
He said, “Given the political battles he has fought in the last two years, it makes all politicians feel unsafe. And going by the records of such killings, such killers are never found.”
Meanwhile, The Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress, on Tuesday, expressed shock on the brutal assassination of the Ogun State AC governorship candidate in the 2007 election, Otunba Dipo Dina by unknown gun men.
The party, in a release signed by the Lagos State Publicity Secretary, Joe Igbokwe, eulogized the late politician, describing his death as one assassination too many, while it expressed the fear that his killers may not be found.
The statement reads, “Otunba Dipo Dina fought for the democracy we have in place today, even when most of the characters that are now defacing this democracy in the name of rulership were hobnobbing, wining and dining with the military.
“He was a big star in the gritty fight against the military and was a principal member of the National Democratic Coalition, when the impostors that have seized our democracy and made it such a nightmare for other Nigerians were hobnobbing and abetting tyrannical Rule.”
“We cannot but be sad that this fine soul and valiant defender of democracy had been brutally hacked down in a democracy that had been mishandled by fiends and ghouls to become a national bloodbath.”
The Ogun State Commissioner of Police said Otunba Dipo was killed by armed robbers even as the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) has expressed its sadness at the gruesome murder of Dipo Dina.
A statement issued by Yinka Odumakin, National Publicity Secretary, said “Dipo’s murder has once again raised the political temperature of the South West in particular; and Nigeria in general as we move towards 2011 elections.
This is one murder too many! Dina has now joined the long list of the assassinated – in the league of Chief Bola Ige, Dr. Ayodeji Daramola. Funsho Williams, Jide Arojo and so many other non-prominent people who have lost their lives since the inception of ‘do-or-die’ politics introduced into the South West’s political culture by the leader of the ancient regime.
One common thread in all these assassinations is the inability of the police to bring to book the perpetrators of this dastardly crime. We have always posited that a crime not punished is an incentive for other criminals to do an encore. The time has come for us to insist that ‘Enough is Enough’ of these murders without murderers. It is time to burst the “nest of killers.”
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