BY CHIDI NKWOPARA
OWERRI—Owerri-based industrialist and rubber merchant, Chief Emeka Egeonu, has been gruesomely murdered by yet-to-be identified hoodlums in his Akwakuma, Owerri North local council area residence.

A resident in the area, who spoke to Vanguard on grounds of anonymity, revealed that the late Egeonu, a native of Ideato North Local Government Area of the state, was probably trailed from where he attended a neighbourhood security meeting.

He said: “Chief Egeonu was a very friendly, simple, unassuming and hardworking man. He was attacked and shot at the gate of his residence by a four-member armed gang.”

Vanguard equally gathered that late Egeonu once managed the privately-owned rubber estate of Ferdinand Oils Limited before establishing his own chain of businesses.

Efforts made to talk to members of Egeonu’s immediate family were abortive at the time of going to press, as none of them was willing to speak to journalists on the sad event.