KJPARGETER-FREEPIKCOTABATO CITY — The 60-year-old husband of the mayor of Lumbaca-Unayan town in Lanao del Sur was shot dead in a daring attack on Wednesday.
Senior officials of the Lanao del Sur Provincial Police Office and local executives separately told reporters on Thursday that Abdulazis Tadua Aloyodan was standing outside of their house in the town center of Lumbaca-Unayan when armed men in a vehicle pulled over and opened fire, killing him instantly.
Mr. Aloyodan’s spouse, Jamaliah Dimatunday Aloyadan, is the incumbent mayor of Lumbaca-Unayan. The slain Mr. Aloyodan had also served as mayor of the municipality prior to the election of his wife to the same post in 2022.
The killers of Mr. Aloyodan hurriedly escaped amid the commotion triggered by the gunshots that reverberated through the scene, not too distant from the town hall of Lumbaca-Unayan.
Gov. Mamintal Alonto Adiong, Jr., chairman of the multi-sector Lanao del Sur Provincial Peace and Order Council, condemned the incident and urged officials of the Lumbaca-Unayan Municipal Police Station and barangay leaders in the municipality to put an immediate closure on the incident.
“We want the people behind that crime prosecuted to the fullest extent of law,” Mr. Adiong said.
Brig. Gen. Romeo Juan Macapaz, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, said investigators are still trying to identify the killers of Mr. Aloyodan and determine their motive.
He said they are still unsure if the murder of Mr. Aloyodan was politically motivated. — John Felix M. Unson
