A former Minister of Finance, Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu and his wife, Imo Kalu, escaped death by the whiskers when petrol bomb explosions rocked their country home in Ebem Ohafia, Abia State. The house is a stone-throw from the Goodluck Jonathan Military Barracks, Ohafia.
The incident happened at 1.30am on March 29, when the couple was in deep sleep, but was kept under wraps to allow security agencies probing the incident apprehend the perpetrators. However, a month after, there seems to be no headway. Instead, the home of another Igbo leader, Chief Nnia Nwodo, the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, in Enugu was bombed exactly a month after Kalu’s narrow escape.
The first explosion targeted at the carport, which is some metres away from the main building, razed completely their Toyota Prado SUV. The second explosion occurred at the main building and destroyed extensively a section of the house.
It was the sound of the explosions that woke them up, while they raised the alarm that attracted neigbours, who rushed to put off the fire that had done enough damage to the building. They had travelled home to celebrate the Easter, but their celebration was turned into a nightmare.
Narrating to Saturday Sun, the incident, the former minister, who is yet to recover from the shock said, they travelled home to celebrate the Easter, not knowing that merchants of death were waiting for them. “If not for God’s loving kindness and mercy, my wife and I, would have been roasted alive. God knows how to protect His own; we have never wronged or offended anybody; we live our quiet lives”, he said.
He recalled that he had been threatened, when a member of the inner caucus of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) told him clearly that he was marked for elimination because he had remained aloof to the Biafra struggle and has not lent his voice or support the struggle. He said he didn’t take the threat seriously, as he didn’t see how his failure to contribute money for IPOB struggle would be a crime.
“I didn’t take the threat seriously. They thought I was a millionaire, which I’m not. The same man was reeling out my sins against IPOB, and asked me why my enemies were spreading false information about me. He told me that my name was among those marked for elimination; that I was on the group’s hit list for long.
“Lots of recent Facebook hints corroborate direct threats issued verbally several months in the recent past. From what I heard, mine was the first alert, and the second alert came a month after, which was the bombing of the President General of Ohanaeze, Chief Nnia Nwodo’s home.”
According to Kalu, “the Abia State Police Command and the Department of State Security came and took photographs, and said they were going to investigate the matter, but we are yet to hear the outcome of their investigation one month after.”
When Saturday Sun called the Abia State Police Public Relations Officer, Geoffrey Ogbonna, he directed enquiries to the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Anthony Ogbizi, who could not be reached as at press time. Recall that on April 29, an Improvised Explosive Device was thrown into Chief Nwodo’s house at Ukehe, Igboetiti Local Government Area, Enugu State at 5.30am, by unknown persons from outside his compound. The explosion was said to have destroyed part of his building, shattering windows and the ceiling of his house. (Sun Newspaper)
