Residents of Aba in Abia State have decried the killing of Samuel Kalu, aka aki ilu, bitter kola, a Nigerian resident in Malaysia, who was shot dead on Sunday evening by gunmen in Umuibe Street, Aba.
Okere Ogbonna, a resident of the area who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria, said Kalu was shot at a barbing saloon at Umuibe Street, off Item Road, Ndiegoro Aba.
Okere said the incident took place on Sunday, stressing that the residents of the area were thrown into panic.
He said that Kalu, who hailed from Ibinaukwu Igbere in Bende Local Government Area of Abia State, was “born and bred” at the Ndiegoro area of Aba, where he was brutally killed.
According to him, Kalu has a wife, a daughter and aged parents he stayed with when he recently returned from his base in Malaysia before the coronavirus outbreak.
Another Umuibe Street source that did not was his name printed said Kalu returned from his Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia base before the COVID-19 lockdown and had planned his return to Malaysia before his murder.
The source pleaded with Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to do something about the security situation of the entire Ndiegoro area of Aba, including Ngwa Road and Ohanku Road.
He said some persons had been killed in the area recently on Agu Road, off Ohanku Road in the same Ndiegoro area.
When contacted, the spokesman of the Abia State Police Command, SP Geoffrey Ogbonna, confirmed the incident.
Ogbonna said: “We learnt that the young man was shot in a barbing salon.
“He got a call and either he directed them to where he went or the people went in there and shot him.
“The case is under investigation.
“We are doing our best to track the hoodlums.”
Ogbonna said the reported recurrence of killings in the area is the reason residents should volunteer information to the police.
NAN.