An
investigative new report have revealed the controversies, untold
stories, and the pains surrounding the teenage boy allegedly shot dead
by security operatives during the recent demolition of a popular market
in Owerri, Imo state.
But for cruel fate, Master Somtochukwu Ibeanusi who was felled by a
stray bullet allegedly fired by security agents during the demolition
of the Eke- Ukwu three weeks ago, would have started his junior
secondary school this week at a seminary school.
He graduated from primary six last July at East Academy Nursery and
Primary school in Owerri. So that singular bullet extinguished the hope
of the family whose only son wanted to be a catholic priest.
Tragic incident
Since that tragic incident, the house of the Ibeanusis has become a
beehive of activities as people from all walks of life have been
trooping to the place at 18 Oguamanam Street, off Douglas Road, Owerri,
to pay their last respects and to condole with the family. Getting Mrs.
Ogechukwu Ibeanusi, his distraught mother, to speak on the death of her
only son, was quite a Herculean task.
“My husband and I were in one of our shops at the shopping
plaza in the demolition zone, trying to evacuate the goods in the shop
because my husband deals in phone accessories,” she said while recalling the tragic incident.
“Because the state government has already started the
demolition that morning, Somtochukwu and his elder sister, Mmesoma, were
sent to pack the goods in one of our shops in the same area also being
demolished.
"It’s while carrying out that instruction that the boy was
killed in controversial circumstances. Controversial because opinions
are divided as to whether his death was from a deliberate shot or
circumstantial, from stray bullet, as being claimed in some quarters."
How it happened
The woman recounted details of how the tragedy began to unravel. “As
we were still busy trying to pack out our goods, some of our neighbours
rushed in and called my husband and whispered something to him and he
left with them immediately, but I did not know what it was all about. I
did not know that my only son has been killed.
"After a while, some people that I know in the neigbhourhood
came and asked me to follow them to our house. I refused and told them
that my husband just left and our goods were still at the plaza which is
being demolished. But they persuaded me to follow them to the house.”
On reaching there she learnt that her only son has been shot, but
that was half of the story. The naked truth was when, in company of
relatives and sympathizers, she got to the Federal Medical Centre where
he was rushed to after the shooting. “When I saw his lifeless body I knew that my world has collapsed,” she said.
“Somtochukwu was a covenant child,” she informed Saturday Sun.
“The devil did not want him to be born but God was with him and he was
eventually born. I called him Somtochukwu (Join me/Follow me to praise
God) because he was declared dead after six months when he was born but
God brought him to life. He was very talented but for his death he would
have entered the seminary this month because he wanted to be a catholic
priest but all that is now gone”.
She said that the family had handed over the matter to God.
Although none of the relations agreed to speak on the matter, Ikechukwu
Oha who was an eyewitness disclosed that Somtochukwu was allegedly shot
by soldiers.
“We were standing close to the multi-line motor company close
to Douglas by Mbaise road when suddenly soldiers in an army vehicle with
a mounted gunnery started shooting indiscriminately by turning the
mounted gun in all directions,” he recalled. “We started
running; we were all running to escape as bullets were flying in all
directions and Somtochukwu was among those who were running.
"I think he must have been hit by the bullet. From where I
was, I saw one of the army personnel speaking to the man in the vehicle
with the mounted gunnery when it dawned on them that someone had been
shot. But after their conversation the soldier who had been manning that
vehicle was asked to come out. As he came out, he entered an army jeep
and he was driven out from the scene and another soldier was asked to
take over the vehicle with the mounted gunnery.”
Initially, it was not clear who was shot, he added. They were to
discover that after things had calmed down. Ugochukwu Mere who also
witnessed the incident confirmed that Somtochukwu was killed by stray
bullet from the soldiers’ gunfire.
According to him, “there was indiscriminate shooting on that
day particularly by the soldiers and as people were running
helter-skelter, it was in that confusion that he was hit by stray
bullet. About eight other persons were equally hit by stray bullets on
that sad day but only the boy died.”
Traders’ complaints
Meanwhile, traders at the new market at Egbeada where the state
government has relocated the demolished Eke-Ukwu Owerri have complained
of lack of sufficient stalls to accommodate them.
One of them, Madam Adanma Ejiogu, who sells foodstuffs said that
though the governor had promised to give stalls free to traders for
three months before they start paying, the stalls are not enough.
“The stalls are not enough and everybody is struggling to get a
space to put their tables unlike at Eke Ukwu Owerri where all have
shops,” she said. “And again we do not have customers as we
used to have at Eke Ukwu Owerri, because most people don’t come here due
to the distance.”
Mrs. Monica Amadi, who sells smoked fish managed to get a space but like Ejiogu she also lamented low business patronage. "Most buyers now prefer to go to Relief market since the demolition of Eke- Ukwu Owerri," she said. “This place is a bit far from the city centre,” she said. “Only those who patronise us here are mostly from this area.”
Source: The Sun
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