Tragedy in Onitsha as vigilante operative kill driver, shoot self

Double tragedy struck in Anambra state at the weekend, as neigbourhood vigilante operative, Mr. Ayo Obiora, in Nkpor, Idemili North local government area, a suburb of Onitsha, the state commercial nerve centre, allegedly shot dead a commuter bus driver along Umuoji/Nnobi road, Nkpor and also shot himself.

Similarly, a 40-year-old man was said to have died Sunday night after he fell from a storey building and hit his head on the ground.

However, there were two conflicting reports as to how the vigilant operator killed the driver and himself as sources said that the driver was driving into a petrol station ostensibly to fuel his bus when the security man opened fire on him.

Sources said “we were surprised that when we were passing and on seeing a bus driving into the filling station the next thing we heard was gun shots and on watching, it was the driver that was gunned down by the vigilante operative within.

It was like the shooting has the influence of drug because we did not see any offence the driver committed at that point in time.”

Apparently realising the gravity of the offence the vigilante operative decided to take his own life, by shooting himself.

But another source attributed it to an accidental discharge and because he did not want to be incarcerated in detention and killed later, he resolved to also take his life.

Confirming the incident, the Ogidi Divisional Police Officer, Mr. Hassan Musa, said “the security man did not die eventually, saying that they took him from Crown hospital where he was earlier rushed to Iyi-Enu Mission hospital Ogidi.

The DPO said the suspect has not died as “he was placed on danger list and even this morning he is still alive and investigation is going on to unravel the circumstances leading to his shooting dead the bus driver.”

But Solomon Ugodi, who hails from Ozalla in Ibo Etiti local government area of Enugu state, was said to have gone to sleep in his uncompleted apartment at Oranye, American Quarters of Onitsha when he fell from the storey building and died after hitting his head on the ground.

Police from Onitsha Central Police Station who were invited to inspect the corpse before it was taken to the morgue.