Police shooting sparks violence in Onitsha

[DT]

Violence broke out in Onitsha, Anambra State, yesterday after a policeman shot dead a bus driver who refused to pay a N20 tip, heightening ethnic tensions in the commercial city.  

Hoodlums and bus drivers took to the streets protesting the killing of the driver, setting up bonfires along the streets and targeting shops.  

The violence soon took an ethnic dimension when some of the rioters targeted northern communities in the city, forcing them to flee to police and military bases in Onitsha and in neighbouring Asaba, Delta State.

Witnesses said trouble started when a coaster bus, which took off from the Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS) Junction along Awka Road, came to a police checkpoint along New Market Road.

At the checkpoint, a policeman demanded N20 tip but driver Edwin refused to give him, according to conductor of the bus Samuel Ekwueme.

"The policeman stopped my Oga at ABS junction demanding for N20 bribe, but he beat the checkpoint. But as we were going down to Ose main market, he noticed that the policeman took a commercial motorcycle and followed us," the conductor said.

"And when he (the deceased) noticed that the policeman was following us, he tried to follow the one-way through New Market road but the policeman followed us and shot at the tyre of the vehicle, and we stopped. Then he came to the door and shot Edwin at a close range in the neck," he said.

The bus, with registration number AA768AHD, was full with passengers at the time of the incident, and some of the passengers also sustained gunshot injuries, witnesses said.

One of the passengers, Miss Ifeoma Obi, told Daily Trust that when the policeman first shot at the tyres of the vehicle, the driver had to stop because the bus could not move again.

"It was just sheer wickedness on the side of the policeman, who because of just N20, wasted the life of this young man," she said.

Residents said wife of the deceased driver gave birth about a week ago.

Shortly after the bus driver was killed, the city erupted in violence as angry bus drivers and mobs trooped out from different locations to protest the killing.

The riot took ethnic coloration as hoodlums in the commercial city went on the rampage, threatening to kill Hausa people because according to them the policeman who shot the driver was a Hausa man.

This forced hundreds of people from the northern communities in the city fleeing to the Central Police Station and other police offices in the city for fear of the mobs. Many others also fled to Asaba.

At the Head Bridge, Onitsha, the Divisional Police Officer in charge of the Fegge police station, Mr. Tafida Saleh, and his men were there to protect the people.

Earlier, a mob booed and threw stones at the police team sent by the Anambra State Police command to appeal to the crowd that erupted after the killing of the bus driver. This forced the policemen to retreat to avoid clashes.

When Acting Police Area Commander of Onitsha, Mr. Rowland Omoteje, accompanied by the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Central Police Station, Mr. Abdul Yusuf, arrived at the scene, the mob pelted them.

In their account of the incident, the police authorities said a mobile police corporal attached to Police Mobile Force PMF 52 on stop-and-search duty tried to stop the deceased and the conductor allegedly tried to disarm the policeman which led to the incident.

A MASSOB official Chief Rommy Ezeonwuka, in his reaction to the incident, advised members of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra not to attack any Hausa man but to dismantle every police checkpoints in the zone.

Ezeonwuka, who is deputy to MASSOB leader Ralph Uwazuruke, said dismantling all police checkpoints was necessary because the security of Ndigbo was not guaranteed even in their land.

"For a Hausa policeman to shoot an Igbo driver here because of mere N20 shows that the policeman is a Boko Haram member but we have urged MASSOB members to leave Hausa people alone because they are not our problem, they should concentrate on dismantling all police checkpoints within the zone," he said.

When contacted, the Anambra State Police Commissioner, Mr. Muhtari Ibrahim said the killer cop had been arrested and will undergo orderly room trial and prosecution. He urged the rampaging mobs to calm down and go about with their normal lives.

"I appeal to the rampaging mob to calm down as we are making efforts to settle the matter and bring lasting peace to Onitsha," Ibrahim said.

Tension was high in Abraka market in Asaba, populated mainly by northerners, and in other parts of the Delta State capital after the incident.

A number of people who fled into Asaba came with injuries and they took refuge at the B Division of the Nigeria Police in Okwe.

Spokesman for the Delta State police command, DSP Charles Muka, said the command has deployed its men to strategic locations in Asaba to check the situation.

A BBC Hausa reported monitored last night said things had calmed down in Onitsha after troops and riot policemen were deployed.

DailyTrust