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.