Nigerian security forces have been accused of extra-judicial killing of a 48-year-old businessman, Ifeanyi Obi, who visited Owerri, Imo State, to attend the burial of a relative.
He was returning to his base after the burial when he ran into a commotion during which he was allegedly shot dead by Nigerian security forces.
Obi, said to be a successful shoe manufacturer based in Aba, Abia State, was reportedly stripped and paraded alongside others as an unknown gunman belonging to the Eastern Security Network (ESN).
In a video that has gone viral, a niece of the deceased said he left for Aba about 8 am on Sunday, the day he was shot dead.
The lady who was inconsolable said Ifeanyi was not a trouble-maker and was only in Owerri for the burial of her uncle.
She insisted Obi slept in their house and she accompanied him and another person to the park on Sunday and the deceased gave her N2000. She said she later called him to find out where he was, and he told her breathlessly that they were discharged by the bus driver when they ran into intense shooting by security men and they were stranded as everyone ran in different directions for safety.
The niece said at that point, she told Obi to find his way back to the house and wait for things to cool before going and he agreed.
She said when she called the number 30 minutes later to find out where he was, the number was not picked and it rang ceaselessly for hours before someone later picked her call around 3 pm the call to inform her that the owner of the phone was an unknown gun man and was dead.
She narrated that she screamed that it was impossible as her uncle was not a gun man and was in Owerri for a burial. She said she raced there and discovered that it was Ifeanyi Obi.
The victim who hailed from Oguta in Imo State but resided in Aba, Abia State, was said to be in the attire he wore to the burial when he was shot dead.
An eye-witness told SaharaReporters an account that corroborated what the niece said in the viral video.
He said the bus the victim and his partner boarded aborted the journey at Alvan Ikoku College of Education area in Owerri because of sounds of gunshots.
“The driver hurriedly discharged all passengers and asked them to find their way to safety and the passengers ran in different directions, including Ifeanyi and his in-law who ran in separate directions.
“It was where Ifeanyi ran to and was taking refuge and dodging the flying bullets that soldiers stormed and shot him dead instantly. His corpse was picked up and the trousers he wore were removed,” the eye-witness said.
The army and police reportedly took all the persons shot dead at the scene to the police command headquarters in Owerri.
“The next thing was that his corpse was paraded later by the security operatives with a gun placed on him as one of ‘the five unknown gunmen or Eastern Security Network (ESN) or Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) members killed during an exchange of gunfire’ while attempting to attack the Imo State Police Headquarters. We were so infuriated. How could the army and police do this? Is it because the dead don’t speak?” another source queried.
