A serious fight between a group of police officers and a Nigerian soldier has left one shot in the leg in Ebonyi state.
Men of the Nigerian police (File photo)
There was a breakdown of law and order yesterday when youths of Owutu Edda community in Afikpo South Local Government Area of Ebonyi State went on rampage over the shooting of a soldier in the community by policemen, destroying property worth millions of naira.
Trouble started when officials of “Operation Safer Highway” of the police, at a police checkpoint along Nguzu Edda road, stopped a woman wearing a military cap on a motorcycle, Daily Sun reported.
It was gathered that when the woman was stopped, she revealed to the men that she was a soldier's wife which angered one of the policemen at the checkpoint, who ordered her to call her husband before the cap could be released.
When her husband came to the scene, the policemen tried to arrest him which he resisted leading to fisticuffs. In the process, one policeman shot him in the leg.
The youths, on hearing what happened to their soldier-brother, mobilised and attacked houses of all the policemen in the community, vandakising and burning household property.
Addressing the angry youths, the Senior Special Assistant to Governor David Umahi on Internal Security, Dr. Kenneth Ugballa, appealed to them to be calm, promising that government would look into the matter.
He condemned the shooting and assured them that the police authorities would investigate the matter and bring the perpetrators to book.
Meanwhile, the victim, Ikechukwu Nnachi, is currently receiving treatment in a military hospital in Ohafia, Abia State.