Military personnel and policemen on Friday prevented an irate mob from setting ablaze a filling station in Onitsha, Anambra State after a security guard shot dead a middle-aged man.
The incident occurred at about 10am at Ona-Jones Oil filling station near the Nkpor fly-over on Enugu-Onitsha Expressway, Nkpor, near Onitsha.
An eyewitness said soldiers and policemen arrived the scene and dispersed the mob, while they were mobilising to set the filing station ablaze.
The eyewitness said: “Trouble started when the victim had a disagreement over N500 balance from a business transaction with an alleged GSM phone repairer near the filling station.
“The security guard interfered in the matter and ordered both of them to kneel down.
“They obeyed, but his hands touched the trigger and the bullet hit the boy and he died instantly.”
The eyewitness said the owner of the filling station quickly alerted the police as the incident attracted passers-by that gathered tyres to set the filling station ablaze.
“On arrival, the military personnel and policemen cordoned-off the station, dispersed the mob, arrested the security guard and whisked him off to Ogidi Police Division,” the source added.
Another eyewitness said the policemen took the corpse of the yet-to-be-identified victim to a nearby mortuary.
The Divisional Police Officer in-charge of Ogidi, CSP Hassan Musa, confirmed the incident, adding that the security guard has been arrested.
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