Panic has gripped residents of Eke community of Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State following the alleged killing of a volunteer member of the community’s neighbourhood vigilante and a woman by soldiers from the 82 Division of the Nigerian Army Enugu.

It was gathered the vigilante operatives Ebuka Oke(deceased); Assistant Chief Security Officer of Eke Security Neighbourhood Vigilante Watch, Mr. Emeka Anigbo; Chinedu Okolo and Obinna Ofor were on their way to combat robbers who blocked the major road leading to the popular Catholic Church Prayer Centre (Ugwudinso) and Eke, from Ama Breweries on Thursday evening when the soldiers asked them to stop and started shooting.

It was learnt while Ebuka Oke was shot dead at close range, Okolo had his genitals and legs shattered by the soldiers’ bullets with Ofor shot on various parts of his bodies and in the intensive care unit of a hospital.

The development, it was gathered, has thrown the community and its neighbourhood into panic.

One of the operatives, Anigbo told reporters from his hospital bed: “We were at 9th Mile Conner on Thursday night where we had gone to felicitate with our colleagues who were being inaugurated as neighborhood watch members. It was there that we got a distressed call that armed robbers blocked the major road leading to the popular Catholic Church Prayer Center (Ugwudinso) and Eke, from Ama breweries.

“On receiving the call, we abandoned the food and drinks we were about consuming, and swiftly drove out with a view to confronting the criminal elements, but due to heavy traffic gridlock occasioned by the blockage of the road, we could not get to the scene with their vehicle”.

He further narrated they decided to park their vehicle along the road and started moving towards the place.

While approaching the scene, he claimed they were ordered in a loud voice to stop.

Anigbo said they obeyed the soldiers and stopped and started telling them that they were neighbourhood vigilante watch guards.

“Despite the fact that we were in our full security uniform and had identified ourselves, the soldiers opened fire on us at a very close range, killing the late Oke, and the woman.

“After shooting me severally, while I was on the ground, one of the soldiers still, notwithstanding seeing my ID card and my uniform, went ahead to shoot me again on the shoulder,” Anigbo said amidst tears.

But when contacted, the Deputy Director, Army public relations, 82 Division Nigerian Army, Lieutenant Colonel Jonah Unuakhalu, described the victims as armed hoodlums, saying their narrative was untrue.

The Army spokesman also said from the available information in the Division’s disposal, the deceased woman was killed by a stray bullet from armed hoodlums who engaged the soldiers in a shootout.

He said that the troops received a distress call that some criminal elements were operating along the Eke Road and they rushed to the scene.

On sighting the soldiers, he alleged the hoodlums opened fire on them but the security operatives overpowered them, leading to the arrest of one of them and recovery of two pump Action guns and some live bullets, after some ran into a nearby bush.

The 82 Division spokesman, who said he has no information regarding the second deceased, adding that it was in the course of the exchange of fire between the troops and the hoodlums that a stray bullet hit the deceased house wife who was rushed to the hospital but later died.

“So, there is no iota of truth in the information being peddled around that it was soldiers that killed the deceased. Our men only rushed to the scene to salvage the situation, after receiving a distress call.

“It’s unfortunate that the woman died, if not, she would have been in the best position to narrate exactly what happened,” he insisted.

Unuakhalu however disclosed that the division is going to carry out proper investigation on the incident, so as to unravel what actually transpired.

punch