Ikechukwu Anigbo, a barber who was said to have been
mistaken for a robber, is the latest victim of mob attack in the Federal
Capital Territory (FCT). He was beaten, killed and burnt around a popular
relaxation centre in Apo, Abuja.
When Chukwudi Orji bade his friend, Ikechukwu
Anigbo, good bye as he left the relaxation centre, he never knew, that was the
last time he would be speaking to him.
30 minutes after Ikechukwu left the spot, Orji
received news of violence involving some motorcyclists, but he brushed it
aside. It was when Orji got home at about 11p.m, that he learnt that his
friend, Anigbo was the victim of the violence.
“I saw the fire, but I did not know that someone was
inside. There was smoke everywhere; there was no way you would have known that
there was someone in the fire, except you were there or somebody told you about
it,” he said.
The fair skinned man, who was in his early 30s and
from Aku in Enugu State, is a victim of jungle justice, but his friends insist
that he was a barber, making an honest living. They maintained that he was
killed out of sheer wickedness.
A quarrel had ensued between Anigbo and the owner of
a motorcyclist over N10 “change,” he was supposed to have collect after paying
his fare.
None of the motorcyclists, traders, hawkers and
guards at the old London Lane, where the incident occurred agreed to speak to
our reporter, but it was alleged that during the quarrel, the motorcyclist
attracted his colleagues to the scene by shouting “thief”.
The mob that gathered following the alarm collected
tyres from a vulcanising workshop near the scene and set the deceased on fire,
said Ezema Virginus Chukwudike, the taskforce chairman of Abuja Spare Parts
Dealers Association, Apo.
He described the death as one too many, adding that
the excesses of motorcyclists in satellite towns within the territory need to
be curbed.
Chukwudike, popularly known as Oracle of God, said
“when news of the incident spread, people became angry. They wondered why the
motorcyclists would burn an innocent man. Even the man who volunteered to carry
the corpse after he had been killed, was chased away.”
He said this is not the first time that
motorcyclists are killing someone over a paltry sum of money.
“A similar thing happened in Kabusa, when a boy was
stabbed because of change. Another man was killed on Wumba road.
The same change issue led to the death of a man in
Damagaza. In his case, after he was killed, they kept him near a river until
the next day,” he said.
Chukwudike said the last time such an incident
occurred in the area, the traders protested and that it took the intervention
of riot policemen to bring the situation under control.
He added: “Because the motorcyclists knew what they
did, they boycotted this route from Sunday evening until policemen were
deployed to the area.”
Azeez Akinola, Anigbo’s boss at the barbershop,
corroborated Chukwudike story, saying the attitude of motorcyclists in the area
is a cause for concern.
Akinola who lives around the area where the late
Anigbo lived, said he and two other people rushed out of their houses when they
received news of the incident, but that the motorcyclists at Kabusa junction
refused to take them to the scene.
Akinola who had worked with Anigbo for more than
four years in a small barbershop at NEPA Junction, Apo, said it took them a
longtime to find a motorcycle to convey them.
He said when they arrived the scene, they saw
several people with sticks, but that they did not understand the magnitude of
what had happened until someone pointed to the corpse of Anigbo in the fire.
“I could not believe it. There were heaps of iron
treads from the burnt tyres on his body,” Akinola fought back tears as he
shared his experience.
Orji, who was with him at the garden before the
incident, said he has not been able to get over the incident.
“If I had known about it on time, I would have tried
to save him because he was innocent,” he said.
Jonathan Okwe, who said he also left the relaxation
spot at about 11p.m, on the day the incident occurred, said he was shocked to
see human legs in a fire by the roadside.
He added that there were several motorcyclists
around the scene and that he had to quickly found his way out of the area. “The
boy was fair and handsome,” he said.
Akinola on his part continued; “He was very
gentle’’. Speaking in Pidgin, he said, “if small wound touch am, he go treat am
for more than one week.”
“I.K. can’t ride a bicycle, talk less of motorcycle.
Because of fear, he refused to learn driving despite the fact that they were
many people around to teach him,” he said.
He said the matter was reported at the Apo Police
Station, where he wrote a statement before police officers took the corpse to a
mortuary.
When contacted, the spokesperson of the FCT police
command, ASP Anjuguri Manzah said, “there was an early morning disagreement
between two opposing groups that could have resulted in a clash but it was
averted by the timely intervention of anti-riot police personnel.”
Manzah said the FCT Commissioner of Police, Wilson
Inalegwu, warned people of the area to desist from violence at the wake of the
disagreement and promptly deployed police officers to the scene.
The commissioner assured residents of the area and
other parts of FCT that adequate measures have been deployed to contain the
situation, investigate and unravel the remote and underlying issues behind the
upheaval.
He reiterated that any attempt to jeopardise the
existing peaceful and serene atmosphere in the Federal Capital Territory will
not be tolerated.
Though normalcy has returned to the area, the
relative peace enjoyed may not last for long if a lasting solution is not
proffered.
Chukwudike said government should stop motorcyclists
from arming themselves with daggers. “Why should government allow them to move
around with daggers unchallenged?” he asked.
There are several versions of the incident, while
some insist that the late Anigbo did not commit any crime, some alleged that he
attempted to snatch the motorcycle he rode to the junction but was overpowered
by the motorcyclists. However, it is hoped that the police through their
investigation will be able to give a clearer picture of what actually
transpired.
DailyTrust
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