Community Boils as Police Officer Publicly Shoots Businessman Dead In Akwa Ibom

Posted by Samuel on Mon 18th Dec, 2017 - tori.ng

A businessman has been reportedly shot dead in public by a police officer, causing serious commotion in an Akwa Ibom community.

File photo

Paul Isofia, a police officer in Akwa Ibom State shot a businessman, in the stomach at the weekend as the police officer was allegedly making way for their vehicle that was stuck in traffic.

According to Vanguard, the 23-year-old businessman, who hails from Ebonyi state, was shot in front of his Vitafoam store located on Ikot Ekpene Road, Uyo.

One of the residents of the area, Chinweike, said the police officer was using his gun to intimidate people to make way for their vehicle that was stuck in traffic by the Goodluck Jonathan flyover as a result of a broken down bus belonging to Uma Ukpai Evangelical Ministry.

“Because of the traffic, some drivers were using the track road by the Vitafoam store. I was in my shop watching a football match when I heard a gunshot and saw people rushing towards Paul’s store. I joined them to see what happened.

“When I got there I saw that the policeman had shot him in the stomach and when some of us saw that he was losing so much blood we rushed him immediately to the hospital. We got to the hospital around 6:30 pm. I left the hospital about 10 pm after he had been taken into the theatre”

Another eyewitness, Mr.Umoh said “When the vitafoam man returned to his store and discovered that a Camry vehicle was in front of his store he asked the driver to move forward because the vehicle was blocking his store.

A police officer inside the Camry came out and was pointing the gun at him (his victim) and the next thing he did was to shoot him in the stomach.

He said the policeman after shooting the man hurriedly entered their vehicle and took off from the scene.

The State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr.Bala Elkana, when contacted,confirmed the incident, saying the command has commenced an investigation to find out the true cause of the shooting as there were different versions to what happened.

“There was an incident of shooting and also there are different versions to what happened, so we are investigating the cause of the shooting. But the person shot is still alive and he is receiving treatment”, he said.