Anambra’s Agụnechemba member kills 12-year-old boy, traders protest

A member of the recently-launched security operation in Anambra State, code-named Agụnechemba (Operation Udo Ga-Achị) has gunned down a 12-year-old boy in Anambra State.

The incident occurred on the Democracy Day on Ifejike Street, Sokoto Road, near the popular Biafra Market in Onitsha South Local Government Area of the state.

The yet-to-be-identified boy was said to have met his untimely death in the hands of the state-backed force who were said to be attached to the Onitsha South Local Government Area.

According to eyewitnesses, the boy was sitting on a culvert beside the Nwangene Drainage, when he was suddenly fired at by the trigger-happy operative.

It was not clear what led to the sad action.

It was further gathered that immediately the bulled hit the boy, the security operatives attempted to flee the scene in their vehicle, but were stopped by angry residents and traders, who blocked them and insisted that they must not abandon the boy’s corpse at the scene.

The operatives eventually took the corpse away after being overwhelmed and pressured by the crowd, which included traders residents and members of a local vigilante group in the market.

This was corroborated by a video trending on social media, showing two of the Agụnechemba security operatives carrying the dead body of the boy into the back of their van, which bears the operation number ANSG 0060, toll-free line 112, 5111, and mobile number 08002200008.

Reacting to the incident, a local vigilante officer in the area, who simply identified himself as Nwadibia, said they had to act swiftly to ensure the boy’s corpse was not abandoned and that the real culprits were held responsible.

“If Operation Udo Ga-Achị had not been forced to take the boy’s body, the blame may have been shifted to us later,” he stated.

Some eyewitnesses also claimed that the operatives had been notorious for similar extrajudicial killings and that they often go unpunished.

“There was no altercation. The boy had done nothing wrong. He was simply trying to relieve himself when he was shot,” a resident said recounted.

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Anambra State Command, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, failed to react to the incident.

Efforts to get the reactions of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Homeland Security, Chief Ken Emeakayi, proved abortive, as he neither pick his calls nor respond to the message sent to him.