- Eze said the assailants accused them of being informants giving information to security operatives before they were attacked
Gunmen suspected to be rampaging cultists terrorising oil-rich Rivers State in southern Nigeria have killed a member of vigilante group.
The victim, a member of a local security outfit called the ONELGA Security Peace and Advisory Committee codenamed OSPAC, was shot dead in Obele community in the Emohua Local Government Area.
According to PUNCH, the assailants had earlier burned the house of a councillor in the area while four others sustained gunshot wounds as a result of the shooting on Wednesday night.
One of the survivors of the shooting who identified himself as Eze told newsmen on Thursday that he was at home with his brother when he heard reverberating sound of gunshots followed by the roar of a motorbike in front of their house.
Eze said the assailants accused them of being informants giving information to security operatives before they were attacked.
He stated, “I stood up and said let me go and check the people. I saw boys working for one man nicknamed ‘Naked’ with guns and immediately told my brother to run. As we started running, they began to shoot at us.
“Now, they shot me, shot my brother, we are like four that they shot. I have not seen one up till now. We called the village if they had seen my brother, and they said they had not seen him.
“Naked is from Ibaa community (also in Emuoha). He was said to be on security surveillance, I don’t know. I am not a cultist.”
Continuing, he said, “They (the assailants) said that we were giving information. That is the last thing I heard in the community before I left. I don’t know who I am giving information to.”
Meanwhile, a former councillor in Port Harcourt ward 17, Chigozie Woka, a native of Obele, whose house was attacked and destroyed by the gunmen last Sunday, has also accused the same “Naked” of being behind the attack.
Speaking to newsmen, Woka said, “I served as a councillor in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area. What is happening in Obele today is unfortunate. Obele has been having a crisis because of this young man called Naked.
“This young man in question is not even from Obele. He is from Ibaa, and comes to Obele to take refuge. He called me on the phone to say I was working with the security agencies to chase him out of Obele. I told him I was not working with anybody because I didn’t have any plan like that.
“It was on a Sunday. I was in Port Harcourt when they called me that he had gone to my house with his OSPAC (vigilante) boys. This young man, if he is called for profiling as an OSPAC officer will not come.
“He went to my house, they told me he scattered everywhere, put the house on fire and I’m in Port Harcourt here. What is my crime? That I am working with security agencies.
Continuing he said, “These are the things happening in Obele. After he scattered my house and set fire to it, I went to the Divisional Police Officer in Rumuji. I have made an entry there.
“Today again, I am surprised that they were calling me that he had gone to my place to shoot some people in my community, that they were working with me and the police to chase him out.
“He shot four people, they can only see three, who are looking for a way to treat themselves. One, I don’t know if he is dead, they are calling me they cannot reach that one.”
The acting Youth Chairman of Omuobu village in Ibaa, Achor Egberuwho, who spoke on behalf of Naked, denied the allegation and rather accused Woka of sponsoring cultists to attack and kill Naked..
The spokesperson for the state police command, Grace Iringe Koko, confirmed the killing and the attack on the councillor’s house.
Iringe-Koko however said she had yet to receive information on the shooting of the four others.
She stated, “ Yes, I can confirm that one person was killed and a house destroyed. An investigation is ongoing to fish out the culprits and bring them to book.”