Fred Itua, Abuja

Senate minority leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, has vowed to pursue and mobilise national and international pressure to ensure justice for the family of the slain Okada rider, Mr. Chimaobi Nworgu, in Aba penultimate week by a soldier, Corporal Ajayi Johnson.

Abaribe spoke when he visited the family and the crime scene in Umuokereke Ngwa in Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia State.

Moved by the pitiable state of the traumatised widow of the brutally murdered young man, Abaribe vowed that he would ensure that Nworgu’s killer was brought to justice to pay for his crime.

He wondered how a Nigerian soldier who was detailed to man a checkpoint in Aba for the protection of the people, would willfully, with a wicked and sinister motive kidnap another Okada rider to chase Nworgu for over five kilometres to kill him right in his village “in the heartland of Ngwa land for just N100 bribe.”

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“It is an embarrassment to the country and to the Nigerian Army. It is also an insult to our people. We cannot condone this any further. I will surely bring this heinous crime by the said Corporal Ajayi to both national and international attention. Nobody can sweep this under the carpet,” he promised.

The senator, however, said he was encouraged by the fact that the Nigerian Army has taken responsibility and confirmed that Nworgu was indeed murdered by one of their own, Corporal Johnson.

“That means that the case is clear and we now expect a quick dispensation of justice. I have confidence in the military, particularly the army, for their discipline and acknowledged forthrightness in handling issues that tend to smear military/civilians relation.

“My people are in pains. They now live in fears over the brutality of the soldiers, who statutorily are empowered to protect the people. It shouldn’t be so. I am appealing to the authorities to put a stop to this. I will definitely not rest until this is stopped and the killer faces the punishment for his crime,” Abaribe said.

He also decried the security situation in the country and wondered why the military would be enmeshed in the ugly mix, with emphasis on the nauseating killing of some police officers in Taraba State by some soldiers.