By TONY EDIKE
ENUGU— PANDEMONIUM broke out at Port Harcourt Street in Ogui New Layout within Enugu metropolis yesterday, following the cold-blooded murder of a printer right inside his shop by two unidentified persons operating on an unregistered motorcycle.

Vanguard learnt that the victim identified as Ifeanyi had sent out wedding invitation to take his newly found wife to the altar coming Easter Monday and had been busy making necessary arrangements for the wedlock before he was gunned down yesterday.

An eyewitness said the printer in his late 20s, was shot three times by the gunmen who concealed their pump action guns in their “overall suite”.

He was attacked at about 4.50pm by the gunmen who were said to have laid ambush around his shop waiting for him to return.

The eyewitness said: “While his boys were working in the printing press, Ifeanyi who had gone out to see someone returned to the shop and less than two minutes after he stepped into the shop and closed the door behind him, the assailants forced their way inside and pulled out their pump action rifles out of the long suites they adorn.

“One of them shot at him twice while the second person shot him once and he fell down immediately bleeding profusely from the head, which was shattered by the bullets. His pockets were searched and some money and his handset were removed by the killers. One of them saw another handset belonging to one of Ifeanyi’s boys, who were inside the shop working when the incident occurred, and they also took it away”.

They immediately zoomed off on their motorcycle.”

Residents of Port Harcourt street, who heard the gunshots took to their heels while some shop owners in the area abandoned their wares and ran helter-skelter for safety.

However, policemen from Ogui Police Division who were alerted by some residents only rushed to the area to meet the blood-soaked lifeless body of the printer, who was described as a hardworking young man.  The policemen took his corpse to the station from where it was deposited in the mortuary.

The increasing wave of violent crimes by gunmen operating on motorcycles, popularly called Okada, within Enugu metropolis has reached an alarming proportion as innocent citizens are dispossessed of their hard earned money and other valuables with some unlucky ones killed in the process without any major challenge from security agencies.

Only last Monday, a student of University of Nigeria Enugu Campus Secondary School ,who was being conveyed to school in the early hours of the day by his father, was murdered by two unknown men who sprayed a poisonous substance suspected to be “chemical mess” into their vehicle at the gate of the university. The boy inhaled the chemical and died few minutes later.

The incident is currently being investigated by detectives from the state police command.