an unnamed soldier in mufti, reportedly went to the abattoir to smoke Indian hemp after which he relucted to pay, claiming he was a soldier. The situation led to a fracas with some boys in the area, who insisted he must pay, without kenning that the man was a soldier. The verbally expressed soldier reportedly came to the abattoir yesterday with four of his colleagues in a Hilux patrol van and commenced shooting indiscriminately. There was commotion in the area as butchers and those who came to buy meat scampered to safety and when the shooting died down, a pig rearer, identified as Ojukwu, was found dead. It was accumulated that when some of the butchers, who visually perceived what transpired, sought to ken from the soldiers what led to their action, that the trigger jubilant soldiers shot and killed another butcher.
The soldiers reportedly beat four others to pulp and coerced them into their van and drove off to an unknown destination. Their action vexed the butchers as they were joined by other people in a protest that spread to all components of the city. Endeavor by the protesters to dump one the dead bodies they took round the town in a wheel barrow at one of the military posts in the city was aborted by soldiers in full battle gear at the Ogbor Hill waterside bridge. The protest which commenced at about 12.00noon later took an ethnic colouration, as the protesters marched towards the Mosque and the Hausa settlement on Hospital Road, but were expeditiously dispersed by soldiers who kept watch over the places.
As at the time of filing this report, some Hausas in the city had to take refuge at the Aba Police Area command. When contacted, Commanding Officer, 14 Brigade, Ohafia, Brigadier General Lawrence Fejokwu, verbally expressed investigations are perpetual to unravel the cause of the incident.
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