Aba bakery commences feeding of 300 residents daily

April 30, 2020

By Ijendu Iheaka

La’Fresh Foods and Bakery, Aba on Thursday began daily feeding of 300 needy persons who could walk to its office building on 173 Faulks road, Aba, Abia.

Mr Michael Ani, Proprietor of the company disclosed this in an interview with our Correspondent in Aba on Thursday adding that the project would last for a week.

Ani said the company which began operations in June 2019 decided to feed 300 needy persons daily around the company to enable them cope with coronavirus lockdown hardships.

He said that he was not using the process of feeding the needy around as a marketing strategy but was doing so because the people needed help at this time.

“In Aba where many eateries had shut down, the company was well received when we started and God had shown his faithfulness in our operations.

“And considering our market capture, we decided to assist some persons around to feed for some days and to ease the hardship that coronavirus lockdown had caused them.

“Their acceptance of us and what we see some of them go through now moved us to act and now that things are not very smooth for the people, we were touched to reach out to them and lend a helping hand.

“We serve them food with sachet water and we are focusing mainly on women and children.

“We are motivated by Jesus Christ’s concern that after three days of staying with followers, Christ asked his disciples to feed them.

“If Christ could ask that his disciples feed the multitude because they had not eaten for three days, we need to be concerned about our people who have now entered the fourth week of lockdown with its hardships”, he said.

Ani said he engaged the services of men of the Nigerian Legion to ensure the people maintained social distancing while collecting the food but noted that the people proved difficult to manage.

Mrs Ngozi Ndubuisi, and Goodluck Okafor, beneficiaries of the food service who spoke to our Correspondent said they were grateful that the company remembered to feed them at this time.

They called for government to extend their palliatives to them to augment what the owner of La’Fresh Foods was giving them.

COVID-19: Umu-Aba Worldwide Association distributes palliatives worth N8 m

April 24, 2020

By Ijendu Iheaka

Umu-Aba Worldwide Association, an NGO in Abia has distributed palliatives worth about N8 million to residents, to cushion the pain occasioned by the Coronavirus lockdown.

Mr Ezeogo Kalu, National Coordinator of the Association told newsmen in Aba on Friday during the sharing of the packages that the palliatives would be for three days.

He said that the packages which include cartons of noodles would be shared for three days and in three batches among indigents in the city and neighbouring villages.

“What we are sharing is our own widows might. We know it is not enough but we are sure some people will need the packages and  appreciate the gesture.

“We are targeting to share 5000 cartons of noodles to help feed vulnerable in Aba and environs during this COVID-19 lockdown.

“We have been doing things to touch the lives of residents in the state because their lives and the city are important,” Kalu said.

The coordinator said that in January, the association organised  a security summit and  shared exercise books to primary schools.

”So, our work is a continuous one. As God continues to give us, we keep giving back to the people,” he said.

Kalu, based in Spain called upon good spirited people to support the poor and the needy in Abia in this coronavirus pandemic “because the disease is a real war”.

Mr Ndukwe Anyaogu, a member of the association living in America said they were moved to distribute palliative because of the suffering especially among Aba indigents and its environs.

“A lot of us live abroad and we almost left the city before the lockdown but being here and seeing the suffering of the people, we decided to help.

“Some of us living abroad, the government is taking care of us, some are given as much as 700 dollars a week and we are getting tax rebates,” he said.

Anyaogu said the association was committed to restoring the glory of Aba by ensuring respect for human rights, provision of sustainable electricity supply and security.

However, Mrs Monica Okechukwu, a hawker on Ehi road who benefited from the gesture thanked Umu-Aba group for the gesture at a period when the lockdown had contributed to the pain of the people.

Also, Mrs Victoria Maduka, who roast yam by the roadside at Opobo road expressed happiness over the carton of noodles and prayed God to bless the group.

 Maduka appealed to the state government to provide food to ensure proper compliance with the COVID-19 safety protocols including staying home.

The association shared noodles to the poor people along Ehi road, Tenant road, Obiora / Etche road, Ngwa road, Opobo road, and other streets in the city centre.

COVID-19: Abia to begin community testing for coronavirus soon

April 24, 2020

By Ijendu Iheaka

Dr Joe Osuji, Abia Commissioner for Health has said that the state will soon start community testing of Coronavirus to check quick spread of the disease.

Abia recorded its first index Coronavirus cases on April 20, with two elderly persons who have no travel history.

He said that the need to test in communities arose because the manifestation of the two index cases had shown that there might have been community infection which needs to be nipped in the bud.

“The community testing will soon commence but we have not started it yet.

“We will have to complete the contact tracing before we start the community testing.

“There are protocols for testing people and there are people you can test. 

“After the contact tracing those who require sample collection we will collect their samples but those who do not, we will be monitoring them everyday because we have their names, their addresses and their numbers.

“Those we cannot test test, we will now be monitoring them everyday to know their conditions should they develop any advanced symptoms, we move in to treat them”, he said.

Osuji said that the index cases may or may not have infected many persons but that having manifested the presence of the disease inside Abia, government required to act urgently to check the spread.

He noted that Governor Okezie Ikpeazu had ordered a more stringent security operations at the boundaries to stop further entrance of infected persons into the state.

The commissioner said that the medical personnel have started treatment of the two index case adding that there was no cause for alarm because they are stable.

Abia killings: IGP deploys Janet Agbede to Abia as new Commissioner

April 22, 2020

By Ijendu Iheaka

The Inspector General of Police, Muhammad Adamu, has ordered 

the immediate deployment of Commissioner of Police Janet Agbede to Abia state.

Agbede is to replace the Commissioner of Police in Abia, Okon Ene who has been asked to redeploy to the Force Headquarters in Abuja.

The IGP announced the redeployment through a press release issued on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 by the Police Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, a Deputy Commissioner of Police.

The redeployment, followed the shooting and killing of a young man, Mr Friday Arunsi by a trigger-happy policeman at Ebem, in Ohafia local government area of Abia on Friday, April 17, 2020.

This site however reports that Abia people had been calling for the removal of Okon because of his tolerance for unprofessional conduct among policemen in the state resulting in many casualties.

This site reports that Okon’s arrival in Abia coincided with the launching of operation Puff Adder nationwide and in Abia.

During during the event he lambasted policemen for being corrupt and careless stating he would not tolerate such attitudes.

However, his tenure in Abia was to be witnessed to by Abia people as one of the worse regime in policing in the history of the state.

It is on record that when Policemen went in September 2019 to Oko Jumbo area of Ndiegoro, in Aba South Local Government Area to collect toll from drug dealers, the transaction went rogue.

The result was the killing of a policemen from Ndiegoro Police Division by the drug gang from whom the policemen came to collect royalty.

Few days later, the Policemen in Ndiegoro division raided Oko Jumbo and its neighborhoods, looted and burnt about eight houses of innocent residents who knew nothing about the clash between the police and hoodlums.

But the Abia police authorities under Ene Okon, defended the policemen for acting extra-judicially and later the policemen fingered to have been part of the crime were transferred out of Ndiegoro division.

The matter drew the attention of the Aba Chapter of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) who felt the action was so shameless and lawless of the police to be allowed to go under the carpet.

The NBA, Aba wadded into the matter and invited the parties to the case for a public hearing but the policemen refused to attend the meetings.

The House of Representatives member for Aba North and South, Mr Ossy Prestige reported the matter on the floor of the house calling for investigations to ascertain the immediate and remote causes of the clashes.

But again the police according to sources close to Prestige, delayed the hearing through failing severally to appear at the hearing sessions which is still inconclusive till Okon’s removal.

When Abia government announced lockdown of normal activities on April 1, 2020 in the state following an outbreak of Coronavirus around the country in late February, to curtail the spread, policemen in the state enforcing the order killed four Abia residents before the third week of the order ended.

However, the straw that broke the camel’s back for Okon was the killing of an innocent young man, Friday Arunsi by a policeman attached to Ebem Ohafia Police Station.

After the young man was pronounced dead at the FMC Umuahia on Friday, April 17, and his corpse returned to Ebem, angry youths protested his killing with his corpse across the land in the morning of Saturday, April 18, 2020.

Instead of initiating peaceful relational measures to cool the tempers of Ebem youth, Abia police authorities under Okon deployed the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) Policemen to the community.

The SARS men did not waste time to shot another Ebem indigene, Okoro Kalu, a barber  on the legs resulting in his hospitalization and great anger but all Ebem men, women an Youth.

Okoro’s shooting weakened some military personnel who had been engaging Ebem youths to restore peace, law and order hence the youth had their way in burning the police station, police vehicles, Customary and High Courts.

IGP Mohammed Adamu in the statement “condemned the glaring unprofessional conduct and misuse of firearms by a policeman at Ebem Ohafia” on Friday, April 17, 2020 leading to the unwarranted death of Arunsi.

He also condemned the resort to self-help by some members of the community resulting in the burning of government property and operational assets of the Nigeria Police Force.

The Police top brass also set-up a Special Investigation Panel headed DIG Anthony Michael Ogbizi, in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation Department to comprehensively investigate incident.

The IGP said the Panel will review police actions and inactions prior, during and after Arunsi’s death and the circumstances surrounding the attack on the police station and damage to property.

IGP therefore enjoined the people of Ebem Ohafia never to take the laws into their own hands but to rather allow the rule of law to prevail at all times.

He assured that the investigation into the matter would be swift and thorough stressing that justice will surely be served on all parties.

Persons desiring to cross boundaries endangering Abia - Okoli

April 21, 2020

By Ijendu Iheaka

Abia Commissioner for Homeland Security, Chief Dan Okoli has warned that the surge in the number of people coming to Abia boundaries is to endangering the state.

Chief Dan Okoli disclosed this Tuesday during an interview with our Correspondent in Aba.

“We have been doing our best to ensure that Abia state’s boundaries are properly manned to cut off people entering the state and stop possible spread of the coronavirus but the people would not listen.

“You can hear the noise here now. I am at the Onuimo gate which is Abia state’s boundary with Imo state.

“If you see the surge of people here, you will pity us. They are more than 200 persons wanting to enter the state or go out and we tell them to stay at home but they would not listen.

“This is a dangerous development because if you use force to move them now somebody may be injured or die but when it is reported it may not be correctly represented. That is our dilemma.

“People in the media should do all in your powers to increase the enlightenment because the reality of Coronavirus in Nigeria and Abia state now still sounds like a fairy tale to some people and this is very painful”, he lamented.

Okoli therefore urged people who have no business moving around the places to stay at home in order to stop the spread of the coronavirus in the state.

This site reports that the suspicion that the two index cases were infected by persons from other states necessitated this call.

The two index cases recorded in Ukwa on Abia’s boundary with Rivers State and Umuahia North on Abia’s boundary with Imo state were infected by persons from other states.

COVID-19: Aba residents urge stringent boundary checks to curb spread

April 21, 2020

By Ijendu Iheaka

Aba residents have expressed shock and apprehension over the report of two confirmed index cases of Coronavirus in Abia, calling on government to act urgently to curb further spread.

The residents who spoke to our Correspondent in Aba said government’s COVID-19 task force and security agencies should be made to function appropriately so as not to waste the lockdown effort.

Mrs Comfort Micheal, a resident said Abia’s index cases report had instilled fear and anger in the residents.

She said they had been praying and following lockdown rules to remain indoors since three weeks to ensure it did not enter the state.

“We heard about the reported confirmation of Coronavirus in Abia state and we are not happy about this report because it means that we have stayed at home for three weeks now in vain.

“We are fearful about this development because if nothing is done about the free movement of people in Abia which is the root cause of this, it will be hard to contain the spread of this thing.

“I think people are moving about freely because the task forces are not doing their jobs the way they should do it which is the reason the disease has entered Abia.

“Our people should be made to know that something is happening because they are feeling that nothing is happening”, she said.

Christian Isinguzo, said they heard last Sunday that one person having the disease was last seen at 153 Azikiwe road and that made them more jittery.

He said “everyone is crying and praying that this should not come in here but unfortunately, government is not helping our people and so it has come now.

“If they had shared palliatives, I am sure they would not see people on the road unnecessarily, but they are not doing so that is why many are hungry and on the road.

He urged government to lock up Abia boundaries properly in order to stop the spread from other states.

Chris Ogbonna another resident, said Abia leaders should show the people when the persons were moved and the facility they are in to clear doubts.

He urged government to locked boundaries, and conduct tests there, but open the markets so that people can move and get things to eat.

NGOs in Abia demand justice for extra-judicial killing victims by security operatives

April 21, 2020

By Ijendu Iheaka

Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Aba on Tuesday demanded justice for victims of extra-judicial killings by security agencies in Abia during the COVID-19 lockdown.

In separate statements made available to newsmen in Aba, the groups condemned the killing of civilians by security agencies enforcing COVID-19 lockdown.

Abia has so far recorded five deaths by the police and other security agencies’ operatives in the state in the last three weeks.

Chairman, Aba Chapter of CLO, Dr Charles Chinekezi said the killing of businessman,  Ifeanyi Arunsi by a drunk policeman at Ebem, in Ohafia LGA last week is wake up call to stop the killings in Abia.

"The Commissioner of police should round up all those involved in causing all these troubles and deaths and ensure they did not go unpunished.

“Not just those who killed, but even those who got involved in causing injuries should all be rounded up and then put on trial immediately. 

"If he doesn't do that it simply means he has given them the license to go ahead. 

“He's a descent officer who would still want his career records to remain clean and it is a crime to drink while carrying a gun or even on any serious duty, so he must find reason to punish these erring operatives.

"It's an abomination and criminal offense for an officer of the law to use government weapon, bought with public fund to kill innocent tax-paying citizens and owners of the money with which those weapons were secured.

"If their superiors cannot call them to order, then their superiors should now be made to face the law because those junior officers are  under them," he said.

He said it was wrong for people to be killed while they are running from disease and hunger and urged Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu to make a strong statement on the matter and act urgently.

The Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL) and Easy Life for Rural Youth Initiative (ELIRY) said the police are no longer protecting the people in Aba. 

In releases signed by their leaders Chief Goodluck Ibem, and Mr Uche Emeku respectively, the NGOs said the police and other security agencies that has killed an Abia citizen must face the full weight of the law.

They demanded for prosecution of the culprit who killed Friday Arunsi in Ebem, Ohafia local government area on April 17 and killers of other victims during the ongoing lockdown in Abia.

They said “Extra-judicial killings have taken a dangerous dimension as the killing of Friday Arunsi has brought the number of persons killed during this lockdown in Abia state alone to five persons. 

"Coronavirus which is the main reason for the lockdown has yet to kill anyone in the state but security agents has killed five persons without the help of covid-19. 

"Abia residents are not animals whom anybody will just wake-up to kill at will and go away with it, so all extra-judicial killings during this lockdown must be treated seriously”, they said.

The groups called on the police to expedite investigation and action on all cases of extra-judiciary killings in Abia to deter potential erring security agents who see their guns as a tool to kill and maim residents at will.

COVID-19: Abia records two index cases

COVID-19: Abia records two index cases

By Ijendu Iheaka

Abia government on Monday evening announced the confirmation of two cases of Coronavirus in the state by the Nigeria Disease Control Centre (NCDC)

The announcement came on the heels of the apprehension of a young man falsely named Vincent Prosper declared wanted on Saturday for inviting NCDC to pick him on suspicion he had the symptoms.

According to the information, Prosper later vanished on citing the arrival of the State’s COVID-19 Rapid Response Team.

The Abia Information Commissioner, Chief Okeiyi Kalu who announced the confirmation of the cases through a press release via his Facebook page said that the result of Vincent Prosper however returned negative.

“We have received the report of two confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Abia State this evening from NCDC. 

“Both patients are advanced in age but currently stable at an isolation center in our state.

“On the direction of the Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, we have deployed our ventilators to the isolation center in readiness for their use if eventually required to nurse them back to good health. 

“Our well trained medical personnel are offering all necessary support and we hope and pray the patients survive this ailment. 

“Contact tracing has commenced in earnest and our rapid response team is currently moving to bring in those who may have had contact with the two index cases.

“Meanwhile, the result of “Prosper Vincent” returned negative and he will promptly be released from isolation”, he said.

Kalu enjoined all Abia residents not to panic but to continue to observe all the safety guidelines issued by NCDC and the state inter-ministerial committee on COVID-19

He urged the residents to stay at home unless there is a compelling need to go out either to buy drugs or food adding that when such need arises, one should move with a face mask on.

He also reminded them to wash their hands regularly with soap under running water for at least 20 seconds or use original hand sanitizers to decontaminate them.

Kalu reiterated the need for the residents to observe social distancing and also avoid crowds.

The commissioner further urged them not open any market to trade and, to stop using public transport until further notice.

“Based on the age of the patients, we are looking at a possible community transmission and will strongly advice that all those who may have come in contact with the two individuals who hail from Ukwa and Umuahia North areas of the state immediately call 0700 2242 362.

“The Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, will be addressing the media tomorrow (April 21, 2020) on this development in Abia”, he wrote.

Abia’s COVID-19 suspect caught after vanishing

April 18, 2020

By Ijendu Iheaka

Abia Information Commissioner, Chief Okeiyi Kalu on Saturday evening announced the government had found Abia’s suspected COVID-19 index case, Vincent Prosper somewhere in Aba.

Kalu who made this known through a press release said that Abia State COVID-19 Medical Rapid Response (RR) Team have taken the young man into custody.

He said that Prosper is now at Amaachara, Umuahia COVID-19 Isolation Centre where a medical team has taken his sample for onward movement to the laboratory.

Kalu had on Friday through a press release announced the sneaking in of Vincent Prosper in the state from a neighbouring state noting that he had escaped from No 153 Azikiwe road where he was last seen.

He said that the suspect who falsely gave his name as Proper when he first contacted the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had then given them his location.

Okeiyi said the young man had returned from Lagos and having manifested some signs of Coronavirus infection, and claiming to have had contact with a confirmed case in Akwa Ibom, he called NCDC to report his case.

 The commissioner said when NCDC contacted Abia, Abia’s RR Team went to fetch Prosper at the house number he gave but he shut off his phone and left the venue when he spotted the team approaching.

“Our team immediately swung into action and called the number forwarded, took notes and asked the individual to isolate himself pending our arrival to take samples for testing. 

“On arrival at the given location, he disappeared and was later to confess that he saw the ambulance and the fully kitted RR-team, lost courage, detested the possibility of being locked down and decided to switch off his phone and disappear into thin air.

“We continued to look for him quietly and at some point got him again on the phone and he gave us a wrong address at Azikiwe Road and a team was immediately dispatched to the location but did not find him there.

“At that point, we decided to enlist the services of a top security agency in the state to find him and also alerted members of the public yesterday regarding the situation in the hope that he would voluntarily come forward. 

“He never did! But late last night, the security agency pinned his location down and this morning our RR-team stormed the location with security agents.

“And they took him into custody at our isolation facility at Amachara where we have now collected samples from him and dispatched to NCDC for testing”, he said.

Okeiyi said that Prosper is now cooperating and furnishing the medical team with necessary information which includes the truth that although he recently returned from Lagos, he had not visited Akwa Ibom since his return.

He said that the real names of the COVID-19 case is also not Vincent Prosper and that he actually called NCDC Control room to report his situation.

Kalu advised Abia residents to know that COVID -19 is not a death sentence stressing that nobody should stigmatize anybody with the disease.

He said people who discover they are showing symptoms of the disease should call 07002242362, promising that the state RR team would do what is expected of them.

He reiterated the fact that up till this moment of Prosper’s appearance, all samples of suspected cases from Abia had returned negative stressing that Abia would continue to handle related cases confidentially.

Police confirm killing of another Abia businessman as angry youth burn station, courts

April 18, 2020 

By Ijendu Iheaka

Police Command in Abia on Saturday confirmed the arrest of an unnamed police operative for killing one Mr Friday Arunsi, a middle-aged businessman at his Ebem Ohafia community.

The Abia Police Public Relations Officer, SP Geoffrey Ogbonna, who confirmed the arrest to Our Correspondent  on Saturday, said that police operative who killed the businessman was currently in detention.

Ogbonna said that the Police Commissioner in the state, Mr Ene Okon went to Ebem Ohafia on Saturday with a team to console the family of the deceased.

An eye witness, Sunday Onwuka said the policeman on Friday shot and killed Arunsi at his shop at Ebem, in Ohafia local government area of Abia.

Onwuka said that the late businessman and his uncle, Moses, were offloading their consignment of beverages from a truck at their store at Eni Njoku Street in Ebem when some policemen walked into the shop.

He said that the policemen told Moses and Arunsi to stop offloading their goods from the truck that brought the consignment but Arunsi and his uncle asked them why they should stop.

Onwuka said that instead of giving them a reasonable response, the policemen threatened them and later walked to the police station where they signed for a gun which they allegedly used to kill Arunsi on their return.

He said that in an attempt to save Arunsi’s life, his kinsmen rushed him to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Umuahia where he was confirmed dead late on Friday.

Another source, who pleaded anonymity, said when news of Arunsi’s death broke in Ebem on Saturday morning, the youths protested with his corpse on the streets of Ebem Ohafia, after it was returned home.

He said that instead of the police authorities calming the situation, they mobilized the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) operatives to the scene of the protest.

The source said that before the SARS men arrived, the military men were calming the youths down until the SARS operatives shot at them and injured a barber, Okoro Kalu who is now in the hospital.

He said these chain of events involving Arunsi’s death and Kalu’s shooting made the youths to regroup and attacked the Ohafia  police station which they broke into and released inmates.

He said that the youths then went and burnt Ebem Customary and Magistrate Courts alongside the police quarters, DPO’s residence and some vehicles in the compound.

NAN reports that Arunsi’s death brings the number of Abia residents killed by security agents since the lockdow began on April 1 to five.

COVID-19: Abia declares Vincent Prosper, a suspected COVID-19 case wanted

April 17, 2020

By Ijendu Iheaka

 In an attempt to track what might turn out to Abia’s index coronavirus case, the state government on Friday declared one Vincent Prosper suspected of having contacted the disease wanted.

The declaration was contained in a public announcement sent to social media platforms and signed by the state Commissioner for Information, Chief Okeiyi Kalu.

Kalu said that Prosper, suspected to have contacted the disease from a neighbouring state before sneaking into Abia had since his entrance gone underground.

Kalu who is also the Secretary to the Abia State Inter-Ministerial Committee on COVID-19 said the man was wanted by the Ministry of Health, Abia State in conjunction with his committee.

He said that Prosper was last seen around 153, Azikiwe Road, in Aba, the commercial hub of the state.

He requested anyone with useful information on Prosper’s whereabouts to call 0700 2242 362 or contact the State Commissioner for Health, Dr Joe Osuji.

He also enjoined anyone who had had contact with Prosper to immediately contact the Abia COVID-19 Care Centre number above.

Covid-19: Okon confirms killing of tricycle operator by taskforce, shooting of civilian by police in Aba

April 17, 2020

By Ijendu Iheaka

Abia Police Commissioner, Ene Okon on Friday confirmed the beating to death of an unnamed  Tricycle operator by members of Abia Covid-19 Taskforce enforcing Abia lockdown order.

The CP who spoke in an interview with our Correspondent on Friday however said he had directed the area Commander in charge of Aba to investigate the cause of the tricycle operator’s death along Opobo road which involved Abia State Taskforce on Covid-19.

Okon said another Tricycle operator ( a second person) allegedly killed by Policemen at Uratta checkpoint in Aba did not die but had been arrested for involvement in defying lockdown order.

The CP also said that in what appeared to be a multiplication of cases involving civilians and security agencies in Aba on Friday that there was another casualty of the lockdown enforcement in Aba on Friday.

He said the third victim was a young man shot on the leg at the same Uratta by the police in Aba for blocking the road for a SARS Team that went to restore order in the area following an anti-police protest by youths.

He said that after a tricycle operator hit someone near a police checkpoint to point of unconsciousness, then a mob burnt the Police Inspector’s Private Mercedes Benz car at the scene.

He said that the mob alleged that the Uratta tricycle operator had died and in their anger, they burnt the officer’s car for allegedly supervising the killing of the tricycle operator who did not die.

However, a source at Uratta who pleaded anonymity said that a Catcher (civilians used as baits by Police to catch offenders in Aba) were struggling with a tricycle operator’s steering when he hit a post.

He said that seeing their Catcher almost being overpowered by the tricyclist in his bid to escape, one of the policemen in the team hit the tricyclist with his gun butt on the head and he slumped.

He said that they were fast to take the tricyclist to the hospital with his tricycle where he was believed to have died.

However, Police authorities later released a video showing one Ifeanyi Onyema from Obokwe in Ukwa West local government area of Abia explaining his encounter with the policemen at Uratta on Friday.

He said he is not even a tricycle operator but a passer-bye who had an encounter with the police at Uratta junction.

He said that during the encounter a policeman hit him twice on his head with his gun butt making him unconscious and resulting in his being moved to a hospital where he later woke up.

Another source at Ogbor-Hill told our Correspondent that the Abia Covid-19 TaskForce chased down the tricyclist who died at Ogbor-Hill the same day and beat him to death after he hit a pole.

He said the tricyclist could have survived, if the Abia Covid-19 Taskforce had not beaten the injured tricycle operator rider who was almost unconscious and motionless after hitting a pole while escaping.

“We saw them chasing him down the other side of the road but suddenly he hit that pole there and stopped.

“From a distance, we saw them beating him before they eventually brought the man out from the tricycle and what he heard was someone saying that he has died.

“This lockdown enforcement is becoming more deadly than the virus itself; this is very painful to hear in a state yet to record a Covid-19 case but is recording more deaths from an ordinary lockdown enforcement.

“In Abia, the coronavirus we know in Abia is our security agencies because they have killed more persons than the virus itself. 

“I want the Abia government to call security agencies here to order and to make them understand that everything is not done with force”, he said.

The killing for this tricyclist brings the number of residents of Abia killed by security men in the state to at least four since Abia’s Governor Okezie Ikpeazu announced a lockdown in the state on Wednesday April 1, 2020.

Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission said Thursday that about 18 citizens have been killed nationwide by security agents since the lockdown began as a measure to check the spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria.