By Kolawole Ojebisi
Governor Kefas Agbu of Taraba State has broken his silence on the circumstances surrounding his younger sister’s death, purportedly shot by kidnappers along Wukari-Chinkai road last year.
There have been contrasting reports about how Atsi Agbu, the governor’s sister, was killed, making her death to be shrouded in mystery.
Until today, there were two versions of report on how Atsi was killed.
One version claims that the vehicle conveying Atsi and the governor’s mother was attacked by bandits who wanted to kidnap the governor’s family members.
The other contradictory version says a police escort, travelling in the same car with the governor’s family, mistakenly shot Atsi while trying to engage bandits in a gun duel to shield the deceased from the hail of bullets from the insurgents.
But speaking on the tragic incident for the first time after months of silence, on Friday, Kefas revealed that a police escort attached to his mother’s escorts shot and killed his sister.
The governor stated this while interacting with journalists in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital.
He maintained that investigation revealed that a police escort shot Atsi at a close range, suggesting a premeditated action.
Kefas further disclosed that pellets of gun were found in the victim’s body during operation before she subsequently succumbed to death.
Kefas, while observing a minute silence for Atsi, and the over 50 people who were recently killed in Karim-Lamido Local Government Area of the state during an attack, called on the people to embrace peace and love one another.
“Life is very precious to me. You can’t just end someone’s life and think God will be happy with you. My younger sister was shot and killed by a police escort who was inside the same bus with her.
“Investigation revealed that my sister Atsi was shot at a close range. The policeman is still under investigation so that justice should prevail,” the governor said.
He stated that a commission of enquiry would soon be set up to look into the causes of Karim-Lamido crisis to bring lasting peace to the affected area.
He regretted that the people who should be living peacefully together to develop their areas had embraced crisis, leading to killing of several lives without any justification.
Meanwhile, the state police command has yet to make official comments to corroborate or refute the governor’s claim as of the time of filing this report.
