Abia community youths on rampage as policeman kills indigene…we have arrested the culprit, other colleagues,says CP

Youths of Ebem Ohafia in Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia State on Saturday took to the streets and major roads in the community to protest the wanton killing of their son, a middle-aged man identified as Friday Arunsi by a happy-trigger police officer.

This is coming barely 24hrs after a policemen on escort duty from one of the neighbouring states killed a resident of Aba on the Uratta axis of the Enugu-Aba-Port Harcourt Expressway.

While reports have it that the protesting members of the community set ablaze a Police Patrol Van belonging to the Ohafia Division, an unconfirmed report has it that another set of protesters also set ablaze the Ohafia Police Division building and released all the detained suspects in the police cell.

Sources at the community who spoke to our correspondent over the issue attributed the display of anger by the community to the unjust killing of Arunsi whom they identified as a hardworking man that sells provision store at Eni Njoku road, Ebem Ohafia.

The sources including one Chima Ibem who couldn’t hold his emotions told our reporter that the policeman in the company of other policemen killed Arunsi and left him in the pool of his blood.

Ibem added that when people nearby saw what happened and rushed Arunsi to a nearby hospital, the victim was rejected as the injury sustained from the close-range shooting was severe and too much for the hospital to handle.

Arunsi was reportedly rushed to the Federal Medical Center (FMC), Umuahia with better facility to handle his case, but he was said to have died before being treated, apparently from too much loss of blood and time it took his relatives to arrive at the hospital.

It was gathered that the villagers went berserk as soon as information on the death of Arunsi filtered into the village.

A source who craved anonymity told our reporter that the said policeman who was in the company of other police officers who were not on duty had gone to drink that fateful night at a beer parlour in the area.

According to the source, “the policemen were apparently drunk after drinking at a drinking joint in the area.

“On their way coming back, their (police private car) jammed a car parked by the side of the road offloading goods the owner of a provision store in the area brought from Aba, as we learnt.

“In the midst of a heated argument, the deceased (Arunsi) was shot by a police corporal who was among the three drunken policemen.

“The Police corporal, we learnt went back into the private car that they were driving home in, brought his gun and shot the deceased.

“From our investigation, the policemen were not on duty that night and the question that we are asking is, if it is right dor a policeman who is not on duty to bear arms?

“From my little experience, I thought that any police officer who is not on duty should go and surrender his weapon in the armory. It is the standard of practice, to avoid this kind of needless killing.

“We were still condemning the killing in Aba on Friday afternoon, not knowing that we will face such wanton killing in our peace-loving community the same day.

“The Governor of the state is the Chief Security Officer of the state. The security and protection of lives and property in the state stops at his desk, we are waiting to know what he is going to do.

“We hope that this case will not be like other killings that have happened in the state in the past two weeks where it seems to us that the state government apart from issuing press releases hasn’t done much to nip this ugly act of killing innocent citizens by security officers in the state on the bud.

“The leadership of Police and heads of other security agencies should, as a matter of fact, make public steps that they have or are taking to ensure that this happy-trigger personnel in the state were made to face the consequences of their actions. If not, we will continue to witness these senseless killings and they will never gain the trust of Abians.”

Our reporter gathered that peace is gradually returning to the community as the Commissioner of Police in the state, CP Ene Okon and soldiers from 14Brigade Headquarters of the Nigerian Army, Ohafia have taken over strategic positions in the busy community to forestall further breakdown of law and order.

Okon who condemned the act of killing and citizens taking laws into their hands stated that the policeman and others involved in the killing of the innocent young man would be charged to court for murder.