SP Geoffery Ogbonna, the Police Public Relations Officer in Abia, has confirmed the death of a tricycle operator, allegedly shot and wounded by members of the state vigilance services (bakassi boys) in Aba.
Ogbonna told the News Agency of Nigeria in Aba that the decessed, who was identified as Sunny Ikpo, might have died as a result of the bullet wound he sustained during an attack by the bakassi boys on August 2 at Uratta Junction in the commercial town.
He said: “Sunny Ikpo, a tricycle rider shot by a member of the Abia Vigilance Service at Uratta Junction, Aba on August 2, died while receiving traditional treatment,” he said.
Narrating the incident to NAN, one Ike Uka, a colleague of the deceased, said that Ikpo was shot on his thigh on Sunday by bakassi boys at Uratta Junction.
He said that the vigilance men came to the area on a routine operation to checkmate the activities of the dreaded Aro-Cult, including alleged indiscriminate defecation and smoking of cannabis sativa in the area.
Uka said: “But trouble started when one of the suspected cultists, arrested in the area, allegedly stabbed one of the bakassi boys with a knife, leaving him unconscious before escaping.
“This prompted a hot chase and combing of the area in search of the cultists by bakassi boys.”
He further said that while searching for the suspected cult boys, the bakassi boys ran into the deceased and accused him of belonging to the group that stabbed their colleague.
He said the bakassi boys shot him on his thigh, while attempting to arrest him, and abandoned him.
He said that the young man was later taken to an unidentified hospital by his relatives, where the bullet was reportedly extracted but regretted that he later died on Thursday morning.
He said that following his death, his friends, colleagues and alleged members of the cult, who were aggrieved by the development, went on rampage in the area.
They were said to have went in search of the bakassi boys, brandishing all kinds of weapons, threatening to avenge the killing of their colleague.
According to Uka, “they chased the bakassi boys away from their office at Obuda Community Hall by Railway and set their patrol van ablaze.
He said: “They brought the corpse of the deceased to Aba Area Police station from where they moved to lay it at the gate of the Central Police Station, Aba, chanting songs of war.”
It was learnt that the police later dispersed the angry protesters with teargas and shots, fired into the air, to quell the rising tension in the area.
The PPRO said the police later deposited the body of the deceased in a mortuary in Aba.
Abia police confirm death of tricycle operator allegedly shot by Abia vigilance group in Aba
