Thugs attack Aba South representative in ABSHA, journalists, break car windshields

Aba. Aug. 25, 2021 

By Ijendu Iheaka 

Armed thugs on Wednesday attacked the Member representing Aba South in Abia House of Assembly (ABSHA) Mr Obinna Ichita and broke his SUV’s windshields at his Constituency office.

The hoodlums numbering about 30 who attacked Ichita, journalists and some of his constituents came in three hiace buses as he was concluding his Town Hall meeting with his constituents which started at noon.

However, security men whisked Ichita away from rain where he addressed his constituents from when the young men swooped in on the venue destroying hired plastic chairs participants used and chasing them away.

Their sudden swoop towards the participants who were busy seeking refuge from the rain, made the participants and journalists to scamper for safety resulting in the injury of many.

Ichita was at at No 20 Port Harcourt Road, Aba, his Constituency Office, for a Town Hall Meeting to brief his constituents on his efforts to ensure Abia government mobilized contractors to roads in the local government which have massively failed.

He said he also had moved a motion in ABSHA on July 14 to make the government in addition to ding their roads but to also remove the accumulated refuse heaps in the local government blocking their roads.

He said that even efforts of ABSHA which acknowledged his action could not move the government to act on his request which he said was justified for his constituents who are also Abia residents too.

Our Correspondent who ran into a house to escape the thugs saw them still destroying chairs picked from the venue some hours later using Machetes to break some of the chairs they took away from the venue as he was escaping.

However, efforts to reach Ichita for comments on the attack failed because his phone was shut off and calls put through to it did not go.

Earlier before the thugs scattered the crowd, Ichita had in agreement with the demands of his people given Abia government seven days ultimatum to act on their demands made through their representative.

They said that if the government failed, they would use protests to mount pressure on the government to give their local government infrastructure befitting the N200 million it receive in federal allocation monthly.

The Aba South Constituents had also sworn to ensure that about $ 56 m:Illinois the government had received from the World Bank for road construction in the state was not squandered but used to build their roads.

Young man shot dead by men in Nigerian Army Uniform in Aba

Aba,    Aug. 16, 2021 

By Ijendu Iheaka (08033312507)

A yet-to_be identified young man was, on Monday, shot dead at the popular Gas-Line bus stop off Enugu - Port Harcourt Expressway by persons eyewitnesses said were in military uniform.

An eyewitness who did not want his name mentioned for security purposes said the deceased was killed by men suspected to be men of the Nigerian Army.

He said the men were on patrol with three Army coloured Vans and on sighting the people coming out to the road, they stopped, shot at them and left.

"We were all out here to see how things were going as there are no vehicles to go to market. 

“Suddenly, the three Army Hilux Vans were crossing. They just stopped their vehicles, came down and opened fire. 

"Some of us didn't run until we saw them pointing guns directly at us. We were not even protesting. This is my street. I only came out to check things out. Moreover, there is no sit-at-home today. 

“What baffles me is that there was no single problem here. The boy their bullet caught on the chest died instantly as everyone ran for their dear lives before returning to see him dead. 

"There are the same security men telling residents to come out that they will guarantee our safety. 

“The same security saw residents who came out from their houses to know if they could find vehicles to go out to their businesses and decided to shoot them. What kind of country is this? 

"They shut him, entered their vans and zoomed off. I saw it with my eyes. I wasn't told. His body has been taken away by people I learnt are hisrelatives, but people made videos of it”, he said.

When Our Correspondent contacted the Capt Ilya Dauda, Army PRO for 14 Brigade, Ohafia, Abia, he said that ‘there was nothing like the Army shooting and killing anybody in Aba”.

Following further probing, he added that the army did not also receive any information on men in military uniform shooting dead a resident in Aba.

Although the IPOB’s sit-at-home order could not be reversed with their earlier notice of its suspension on Friday in Aba,, some parts of Aba experienced chaos following the menace of the notorious Aro cult boys.

The areas where the situation turned into an opportunity for the Aro cult to extort people for coming out of their houses includes, Ariaria, Faulks Road, Okigwe Road, Osusu Road, Over-Rail and Power Line areas.