Murder of Inspector: Police begin mass arrests in Onitsha

Armed policemen from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) on Monday em­barked on mass arrests of suspects during a search for the two bandits who killed an Inspector, Usman Shaibu in Ogidi, Idemili North Lo­cal Government Area last weekend.

Shaibu, who was attached to Operations (OPS) De­partment, State Headquar­ters, Awka, was shot down by the two yet to be identified armed robbers operating on a motorcycle on Saturday afternoon while he was car­rying out a stop-and-search duty in his duty post at Ug­wunwasike round-about, Ogidi.

An eyewitness said the SARS operatives mounted a patrol van at Nkpor junction and other strategic places, shot sporadically into the air and embarked on indiscrim­inate arrests of passers-by, a situation which forced petty traders, bread and fruits sell­ers to hurriedly pack their goods and run home until the ever-busy Nkpor Junc­tion was deserted.

As at the time of filing this report, it was not yet certain how many persons had been arrested in connection with the incident and whether the killers had been fished out from among those ap­prehended during the mass arrests.

The robbers had taken the policeman unaware as they rode straight to him at the checkpoint where he and his colleagues were focusing on flagging down of vehicles for a stop and search of com­muters and allegedly shot him at close range.

It was gathered that after watching his corpse lying stone dead, the robbers al­legedly collected his AK 47 riffle and zoomed off, while other policemen who were with him escaped and took cover on hearing the sound of the robbers’ guns.

The incident which oc­curred within a minute caused pandemonium as road users and commuters at once alighted from their vehicles and scampered for safety.

An eye-witness, Barr Pat Agbata, a legal practitioner based at Ogidi, described the incident as unfortunate, adding that the slain officer had died in active service which warranted that the family should be adequately compensated by the police authorities.

According to Agbata, “the Police authorities should in­tensify investigations with a view to arresting the perpe­trators of the dastardly act who carried out their nefari­ous activities in a commando style”.

“What offence has he committed to be killed like a fowl, Despite the effort of Governor Willie Obiano to rid the state of men of un­derworld you still have them killing innocent people” he stated.

Contacted, the Ogidi Di­visional Police Officer, DPO, Mr Hassan Musa, confirmed the incident adding that the late Inspector was attached to Operations, (OPS) State Headquarters, Awka.

According to him “the corpse has been deposited at Mission Hospital mortuary, Iyi-En, Ogidi, while investi­gations were ongoing.”-The Authority