SocialMediaTrends: ‘Nigeria has failed Dora’ – Reaction trails gruesome murder of Chike Akunyili

Social media users in Nigeria have expressed grief and sadness over the gruesome murder of Dr. Chike Akunyili, husband of late ex-Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dora Akunyili, by unknown gunmen on Tuesday.

Reports on Wednesday confirmed that Mr Akunyili was shot dead at Nkpor in the Idemili North local government area of Anambra State, while returning to Enugu from an event in his late wife’s honour.

Disturbing images of the elderly man in a pool of his own blood soon surfaced on social media, showing him apparently struggling to breathe while onlookers stood by, making videos of the gory sight.

Chike’s brother, Cyril in a now-deleted Facebook post on Wednesday alleged that the attack was carried out by members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

He wrote: “IPOB killed my senior brother. Why? Husband of Prof Dora Akunyili is dead. IPOB why on a Tuesday?”

But the leadership of the seperatist group has since distanced IPOB from the allegation, stressing that the murder was a pure case of political assassination.

The group stressed that those behind the killing were contesting for the upcoming governorship election in Anambra state.

The widower was survived by the six children he had with his late wife, Dora.

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Social media users have decried the spate of insecurity in Nigeria, with some of the view that Nigeria had failed the Akunyilis.

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