One of the suspect in the case of the purported assassination bid on the former Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, (NAFDAC), late Prof. Dora Akuyili, Chief Christopher Okpalafuluaku, told newsmen yesterday in Onitsha, Anambra State, that there was no plan to assassinate her, adding that the said assassination bid was false, and a set up against the suspects as such never happened.

Narrating their (suspects) ordeal in the saga, he said: “On that fateful day, I was not even in Anambra State. What happened was that on the day in question, Akuyili was returning to Agulu, her country home and on getting to a point, there was a large number of people and masquerades, the community was in festive mood and some people on noticing that Akuyili was in the convoy, tried to meet her”.

“In a bid to disperse the crowd that rushed to see her, for security reason, her police orderly mistakenly fired from the car he was sitting in and the bullet pierced through the windscreen.

Prior to this incident, we were the executive of the Onitsha Bridgehead market, and our priority on assumption of office was to fight fake/adulterated drugs, and we also stopped all manners of multiple levies. “This war against fake drugs did not go down well with the importers of fake drugs and those who claim to be life trustees of the market.

“During our tenure there were lots of oppositions, and so they met with the fake drug importers and trustees, who claim to own the market, and they in turn met Akunyili and accused us of attempt to assassinate her with that gun shot from her orderly,” he revealed.

He added: “Consequently, we were arrested. I personally reported myself at the DSS headquarters, Awka, and we were taken to Abuja. As the trial lasted, I spent About 11 years in detention before we were discharged and acquitted.

«By the time Akuyili realised that it was a set up against us, it was too late for her to reverse what she said.”