By Chidi Ibe
For the Police and the people of Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, it was a Friday like no other. They woke up to a normal day. But a few hours later, the day’s innocence was stolen. Laughter turned to weeping. Joy turned to unprecedented agony. Death took over. And human blood, was like a flowing river.
It is no thanks to gunmen who invaded in the morning of Friday, 17th November, 2023, and launched a bloody attack on Police operatives who were at a Checkpoint on Egugwu Agbaja, Hilltop Road, Abakaliki Local Government Area.
Not Emekuku, Owerri North
The news of the deadly attack which, allegedly, resulted in the gruesome killing of 12 people, including seven Policemen spread like wild fire in a harmattan. And it also brought confusion, deliberately planted by some mischievous people as to where it happened.
While the incident happened in Abakaliki, and was confirmed by eye witnesses, a story surfaced on Social Media that it was at Emekuku, Owerri North, Imo
State.
Why Abakaliki Was Supplanted With Emekuku?
It is simple mischief. It was no mistake.
Comrade Joe Ajaero, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, is from Emekuku. Ajaero, on November 1st 2023, had a raw deal in Owerri, Imo State, in the hands of the Police and alleged thugs while on a visit to the State to carry out one of his responsibilities as NLC President. He was there to organize Civil Servants for a protest against the Imo State Government over some alleged welfare related issues. But it turned awry and bloody. Some of the Workers who came out to the NLC Secretariat were beaten up, and Ajaero was picked up for special beating by, allegedly, the Police and the thugs. He was battered and ended up not just in one hospital, but three, between Owerri and Abuja.
Both the Police and the State Government deny complicity. The Police said it only took Ajaero into protective custody, and thus saved him from a blood baying mob. The question the Police did not answer is why no member of the murderous mob was arrested by them. The Organized Labour has demanded for the arrest and prosecution of all the Police Officers involved, whose names the Union mentioned.
Ajaero’s brutalization was greeted by outrage across the Nation, and sparked a nationwide strike by Labour Unions which was called off after two days on the intervention of a Federal Government Team led by the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, AIG rtd. Ribadu, also, announced that some arrests have been made and the Imo State Government has apologized to Nigeria’s number one Labour Leader – Ajaero – over his near-,death experience in the State.
It is, therefore, in a bid to cause more tension in Imo State that mischief makers quickly fabricated that the tragic incident in Abakaliki happened in Emekuku, Ajaero’s Community.
How 12 People Were Gruesomely Killed
The early morning attack at the Police Checkpoint in Abakaliki, allegedly, resulted in the death of seven Policemen and five civilians who were just passing-by.
The attack also left many others severely injured. It is feared that the death toll might rise.
Eye witnesses said that the gunmen stormed the scene in two Lexus Jeeps and a Toyota Sienna around 8:25am and immediately opened fire on the Police officers at the checkpoint as well as on passers-by.
They were armed with sophisticated weapons and, apparently, took the Police unawares. A trending video on Whatsaap shows a couple of the killed Policemen either in a sitting position on the ground, or stretched out in awkward positions on the ground. People were seen running helter-skelter and screaming as gunshots boomed. One of the dead was Emeka whose name one very traumatized woman kept screaming, bemoaning the fate that befell him.
Even though an investigation is said to have been launched into the incident described by residents as a sacrilege in the Community, no official statement has been issued by either the Ebonyi State Police Command or the Ebonyi State Government.
However, there is a heavy security presence in the area. And motorists are being subjected to “stop and search.”
