…Vow to nab culprits

By Emma Nnadozie, Crime Editor, who was in Owerri

The circumstances surrounding the death of a 10-year-old boy, Somtochukwu Ibeanusi, the only son of his parents, in Owerri, Imo state on a day government officials were demolishing the notorious Ekeukwu Owerri ancestral market, still remains a big puzzle to many.  Before the demolition kicked off, it was a well known fact that Ekeukwu market was notorious for all kinds of criminal activities.

In fact, successive governments in the state made futile efforts to rid the market of its famed notoriority.  It was learned that the market which was situated right at the centre of the town was occupying a strategic part of the city and it partially blocked both the entry and exit points to many areas in the city.  Aside that, crime of all proportions ranging from drug peddling, armed robbery, kidnapping etc, festered lavishly inside the market.

Mbaise road where the teenager was reportedly killed and CP Chris Ezike of Imo State

So, for long, it was like who will bell the cat?  While past governments prevaricated over the very important decision to rid the market of the danger it posed to the society, innocent citizens including visitors suffered, painfully, in silence.

Then, when the present government decided to take the bull by the horn, tempers rose. Albeit, it turned out to be a chess game between the government and its perceived detractors and, security agents with criminals who were hell bent on resisting relocating the market from where their nefarious activities thrived.

In spite of the legality or otherwise of the demolition exercise which was carried out in a raid that witnessed the intimidating presence of excavators and pay-loaders that rumbled all over the site, the most gruesome was the reported death of a 10-year-old only son of his parents, Somtochukwu, Ibeanusi,  during the raid.

Initially, stories also made the rounds that no fewer than eight people were mowed down by security agents that came to demolish the market.  The story took a different dimension when other versions put the death toll at a lower number of two.  Then stories of those injured spiralled from unimaginable number of hundred to fifty and even five.

Though both the police and government initially came out boldly to deny the rumour of death and injuries spreading like wild fire across the country and beyond, the death of Somtochukwu turned out to be a fact.  However, what remains to be proved is the circumstances under which the helpless only son of his parents gave up the ghost.

While the accusations and counter-accusations lingered, the only silent voice was that of the myriad of criminals that confronted and tried to resist government efforts to demolish the market. The daring-do of the dare-devils that terrorized the market until its demolition cannot be swept under the carpet and it manifested, glaringly, during the demolition exercise in different ways.

A studied tour of the market and its environs showed yawning distance between the market and the scene where the hapless boy was reportedly killed.  The police hierarchy in the state said that much when it assertively stated that they were bent on unravelling the puzzle surrounding the untimely death of Somtochukwu and has gone to the extent of engaging pathologists from Abuja to dissect his body.  According to the state police boss, Chris Ezike, “Well, on Douglas Street where we operated, there were no casualty except two people who were working.   They were injured on the leg but it was not life threatening. From the beginning to the end of Douglas Street, there was no incident that provoked that kind of tension. For example, somebody being shot and bleeding there was no such particular incident.

What we engaged in on that stretch was putting off the burn fire and ensure that the road was cleared of the debris and that was Saturday till the end of that day. There were so many tyres they used in setting up the fire. We disengaged by 10: 00 pm. But somehow towards the evening, we began to see posts in the social media that somebody has being killed but we did not get the information. I tasked the intelligence units to nose around.

Not until 2pm on Sunday when I received a call from one of your colleagues in the media that he was in Oguamanan Street, number 23rd, where the father of the teenager who died lives and I said who is the boy? I said where? Has the matter been reported?

I was over hearing him asking the father of the boy whether the matter has been reported. He said he did not report it anywhere, that he carried the corpse to his spiritual head, who prayed for him and advised him to take the corpse to the mortuary. I now said please, encourage him to go to Owerri Urban Police Division and report the matter.

That, I am going to call the Area commander and the DPO to pull out from where ever they are and go back to the station to receive the report. About 4: 15 pm, they called me that the man has come. I asked them to take all that he knows and take it up from there.

The man now reported. What he reported was that, one security man who was part of the security at Ekeukwu market, who he cannot identify was the one who informed him that his son has been shot dead. And that the person who shot him is suspected to be a soldier. From there we started asking some questions and thereafter, we referred the case for investigation, that was on Sunday evening.”

The Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Sam Omwuamedo also assessed the situation thus; “The hoodlums who went on rampage during the exercise were going to loot in all the adjoining streets and they must have killed the boy.  Look at where the market involved is located at Douglas road, more than a kilometer to Mbaise road where they claimed the boy died. We are still asking them to tell the world the particular spot the boy was killed, but up till now they are unable to say it. What are they hiding, if they are sure where this boy was killed, why not say it.

They have gone to the father of the boy promising him two million if he can say it was soldiers that killed him and the man said no, he cannot say that. They have been putting pressure on the man, but when he refused to abide by their antics, they now went to Abuja, something that happened in Imo state. So, they are only trying to blackmail the government. But they have failed; you can see that the traders are happy.”

On efforts being made to dispel the rumor about the killing of the teenager, he continued; “People believe us. Do you know why, if you see the reaction of the people, if you are a man that is knowledgeable enough, you would be able to remove truth from propaganda. We have insisted that a boy died on that day, but the death has nothing to do with our exercise. We have been consistent on that and nobody faulted us.

Those who are talking about four to five deaths, I challenged them to bring forth the corpses, human beings are not fouls. Mention their names so that people can go and verify. Up till now, nobody has mentioned anybody apart from this boy. So, we are the ones saying the truth.”

Does it mean nobody was injured during the exercise, he quickly retorted, “On that, anybody can be injured. Apart from the one they posted on the social media, they collected pictures of people who died in Bayelsa. You know social media problem; nobody has said look at these people who are injured. We only see them on the social media even those who died in the herdsmen clashes or Biafran war, they posted all of them. Where are they, are they ghosts. These are pictures of things that happened in  Enugu and Oshodi and so on. They now posted all the photograph purported to have been the victims of our demolition exercise.”

A prominent trader in the demolished market, Isaac Ihembosi, assessed the situation thus; “One cannot completely rule out the fact that criminals committed that atrocity.  I was there when it all started and our greatest problem was not just the bulldozers and armed security men but, the criminals that started looting our wares.

They were armed with dangerous weapons including guns and some of us resisted them stoutly. In order to avoid the intervention of heavily armed security men including soldiers, many of them descended on adjoining streets and were brazenly looting and shooting indiscriminately to scare people away. Whatever happened, it is unfortunate that the teenager died this way and it was as a result of the demolition exercise.”