ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – There is palpable tension in Enugu State as Nigerian soldiers allegedly shot on members of the State Neighborhood Watch fighting the kidnappers.
It was learnt that the soldiers who are reportedly aiding kidnappers in the state, also killed two people including the wife of one of them while four others were injured, during the attack.
The incident happened around 9 pm on Thursday night along 9th Mile -Eke- Ezeagu Road.
SaharaReporters recently reported that kidnappers suspected to be Fulani jihadists had turned major highways in the state into kidnapping havens despite tens of military and police checkpoints lined along roads in the State.
Meanwhile, commercial drivers plying the Enugu-Ugwuogo-Opi-Nsukka Road, last week, protested against the rising spate of kidnappings on the road and in other parts of the state.
During the protest, the drivers were seen carrying placards with various inscriptions to express their grievances against the abductions.
They called on the security agencies and the state government to do something about the situation. This is as security operatives and soldiers have been accused of aiding kidnappers in the state and other parts of the Southeast region.
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Some journalists who visited the scene of the attack in Eke community on Saturday and the hospital where the survivors were receiving medical attention, described the incident as horrific.
The victims were seen in critical condition, said SaharaReporters.
The incident has also shattered peace in the community which has witnessed one of the deadliest and most horrifying attacks by kidnappers in Enugu State.
Also, the incident has sent fear into local farmers who have stopped going to their farms, as they have expressed the belief that the Nigerian Army has subtly waged terrorist attacks on them using Fulani herdsmen.
Note that Eke community is the country home of the Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr. Osita Okechukwu, immediate past Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama and a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Godwin Onwusi, who ran for the Udi North State Constituency in the 2023 general elections among others.
It was gathered that the vigilante who was gruesomely murdered by the soldiers, identified as Mr. Ebuka Oke, lost his father exactly a month earlier.
The Assistant Chief Security Officer of Eke Security Neighbourhood Vigilante Watch, Mr Emeka Anigbo, is among the victims of the horrific and unjustified attack.
READ ALSO: Enugu Drivers Cry Out Over Rising Kidnap Cases On Expressway
Anigbo, who sustained gunshot injuries and currently lying on his hospital bed, narrated to the journalists how the soldiers attacked them.
Anigbo, who groaned in pain while narrating the incident, thanked God for the timely intervention of the Divisional Police Officer of 9th Mile Police Station.
He said if not for the police DPO, they would have all been dead, adding that the soldiers would have tagged them as members of the Indigenous People of Biafra/ Eastern Security Network (IPOB/ESN) or simply kidnappers.
According to him, they were at 9th Mile Corner on Thursday night where they had gone to felicitate with their colleagues who were being inaugurated as Neighbourhood Watch members when they “got a distress call that armed robbers had blocked the major road leading to the Catholic Church Pilgrimage Centre, popularly known as Ugwudinso in Eke through Ama breweries”.
“On receiving the call, we abandoned the food and drinks we were eating and swiftly drove out with a view to confronting the criminal elements. We also notified the Divisional Police Officer of 9th Mile that covers the location.
“Due to heavy gridlock occasioned by the blockage of the road, we could not get to the scene with our vehicle,” he narrated.
Continuing, he said they decided to park their vehicle along the road and started moving towards the place. “On closely approaching the scene, we sighted three armed soldiers near the place without their vehicle and we didn’t know how they got there. So, on sighting us they shouted stop there.
“We obeyed the instruction and stopped. I shouted that we are members of the State Neighborhood Vigilante Watch from the area. Thereafter, they asked us to keep coming.”
“Surprisingly, on approaching the soldiers, they started firing at us,” Anigbo narrated in tears, adding, “The soldiers we understand came from 82 Division of the Nigerian Army started firing at us. They shot dead one of us, Ebuka Oke by name immediately. We were shouting we are neighbourhood watch group.
“Our shouting didn’t even ‘touch’ them and they equally shot dead the wife of one of those inaugurated at 9th Mile. She was on a motorcycle with her husband going back to Eke. This is despite that we were in our full security uniform and had identified ourselves. The trigger-happy soldiers opened fire on us at a very close range.
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“After shooting me several times and while I was on the ground, one of the soldiers went ahead to shoot me again in the shoulder even though he saw my ID card and my uniform,” Anigbo said tearfully.
He further narrated: “The same soldier kept on marching me on the chest with his boot, saying, ‘I will kill you today’. In fact, it was the timely arrival of police operatives from 9th Mile Conner that saved my life. It was the police that stopped the soldier, confirming that we are Eke Neighborhood Security Guards.”
Efforts to speak with Chinedu Okolo, one of the victims of the soldiers’ shooting described the situation as severe. SaharaReporters reports that his manhood was shattered by the soldiers’ bullets.
The third victim, Obinna Offor was also seen writhing in pain, while on oxygen therapy at the intensive care unit (ICU).
Some relations of the victims, who spoke on condition of anonymity condemned the soldiers and described their action as barbaric and callous. The locals called for justice.
In separate interviews, they described the incident as proof that the Nigerian Army had been aiding kidnappers in Enugu State and in other parts of the Southeast region.
“If the police hadn’t gotten there on time, the soldiers would have killed all of them and labelled them IPOB/ESN in their usual way to cover their atrocities in the Southeast region. Who can now say they are not part of the kidnapping?” one of the relations lamented.
“We call for an independent and unbiased investigation into the incident. Thank God some of the victims are still alive. We also are calling for the arrest of all the soldiers whom we learnt were from the northern region to face justice for their crime.”
A security source told SaharaReporters that shortly after the attack, one Lieutenant Colonel who went to the hospital to see the victims questioned the soldiers for shooting the security men and killing some of them, in Hausa language.
“Apparently, he didn’t know that someone around understands their language,” the source revealed.
He added that the military colonel questioned one of the soldiers who accompanied him to the hospital, asking: “Is it how you were taught to do it?”
The source, however, revealed that a few weeks ago, some soldiers quarreled with the same neighbourhood watch team for rescuing a kidnapped victim before the ransom was paid.
“The soldiers asked the local vigilantes why they embarked on the rescue operation without their knowledge. Is this not absurd and ridiculous? The Southeast people, especially Enugu people are at the mercy of Nigerian security forces, especially the Army that are behind most of the kidnappings and other terror attacks,” the source said.