Abia Unrest Caused By Drunk Policemen Who Opened Fire During Argument – PPRO

The Abia State Police Command has revealed that the killing of a youth in Ebem Ohafia by a drunk policeman was responsible for the unrest that led to attacks on the police station in the area.

Angry youths on Saturday vandalised a police station in Ebem Ohafia, Abia State and released  inmates, a video footage shows.

The unrest followed the alleged reckless killing of an unarmed civilian, Innocent Friday, popularly called “F man” in the early hours of Saturday, according to a source.

THE WHISTLER gathered from a video recording of the incident by a member of the community, Kalu Uche, that a crowd of angry youths had invaded the police station in Ebem Ohafia and released the inmates.

Uche said the youths had confronted soldiers who tried without success to stop the unrest as the youths reportedly insisted on avenging the killing of their brother.

The crowd was seen moving into the police station without any resistance and unlocking the cells to allow inmates escape.

The youths who were in their hundreds were spotted vandalising vehicles belonging to the Nigerian Police Force, while they broke into the station.

Footage from the video further showed some male inmates escaping from the cells while the station was being attacked.

According to Uche, the youths freed all the inmates before leaving behind ruins of the station, including vandalised vehicles.

However, the Public Relation Officer of the Nigerian Police Force, Abia State Division, Geoffrey Ogbonna , denied escape of any inmate at the police station.

“I dont know, I have not heard that… in the situation report, that was not included ,” he told THE WHISTLER, adding that he was only aware of the vandalisation at the station.

He said that the rampage by Ebem and Elu Ohafia youths was because, “some police men who were presumed to have been drunk, saw a truck offloading goods and they hit the truck. In the course of that, both parties started arguing, including the people that were offloading the goods.

“They started arguing with the police men, as the argument got tensed up, one of the police men disappeared from the scene and only to resurface with a police riffle and started shooting sporadically.

“So the bullet got one of the people offloading the goods, hit him on the buttocks and was taken to the hospital, but before they could get to the hospital, he gave up the ghost,” Ogbonna said.

He added that “the incident angered the youths and they went on rampage.”