From Emmanuel Uzor, Abakaliki
There was pandemonium yesterday when youths of Owutu Edda community in Afikpo South Local Government Area of Ebonyi State went on rampage over the shooting of a soldier in the community by policemen. In the melee, property worth millions of naira was destroyed.
Trouble started when officials of “Operation Safer Highway” of the police, at a police checkpoint along Nguzu Edda road, stopped a woman wearing a military cap on a motorcycle.
According to eyewitnesses, the woman had identified herself as the wife of a soldier, which angered one of the policemen at the checkpoint, who ordered her to call her husband before the cap could be released.
It was gathered that the woman made the call and her husband came to the scene only to be assaulted by the policemen, leading to more fisticuffs as the soldier resisted arrest by the policemen. In the process, one policeman shot him in the leg.
The youths, on hearing what happened to their soldier-brother, mobilised and attacked houses of all the policemen in the community, vandakising and burning household property.
Addressing the angry youths, the Senior Special Assistant to Governor David Umahi on Internal Security, Dr. Kenneth Ugballa, appealed to them to be calm, promising that government would look into the matter.
He condemned the shooting and assured them that the police authorities would investigate the matter and bring the perpetrators to book.
Meanwhile, the victim, Ikechukwu Nnachi, is currently receiving treatment in a military hospital in Ohafia, Abia State.