Operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Abia State Command on Tuesday, allegedly shot dead a 25-year-old Kelechi Amadi over N2000 “fuel money”.
Kelechi was an apprentice to a scrap metal dealer and was shot twice on his left thigh and below his right knee, allegedly by the civil defence personnel and bled to death shortly after the NSCDC men dumped him at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Umuahia and fled.
An eye-witness, Chukwubuikem Okpara Chukwu said two civil defence personnel came to Kelechi’s shop about 10:00 am and demanded for the usual fuel money as they usually do on a regular basis.
He said that there were eight apprentices in the shop when the security officers arrived and demanded money but the shop owner was not present and the security personnel could not wait.
“Our master did not leave any instructions for us to give them money and we told them to wait for our master to come and settle them,” the source said.
Chukwu said that the refusal of the apprentices to bring out money infuriated the two civil defence officers who then started arresting and dumping the boys into their patrol van.
According to him, the deceased who was the junior brother of the shop owner, was pleading for the security men to release those they kept in their patrol van, adding that “Kelechi’s plea appeared to have made the officers more angry and one of them jumped out of the vehicle and shot him on both legs.”
When contacted, the public relations officer of the Abia Command of NSCDC, Ndukwe Agu Egwu, told journalists that he was aware that a man was shot by personnel on patrol but didn’t know the victim eventually died.
He said the officers involved in the incident informed him that they were attacked by the scrap metal dealers and in self-defence, one of the officers fired his gun at the victim to demobilise him, promising that a thorough investigation of the incident would be carried out and any personnel found culpable would not be spared.
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