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Hoodlums have attacked the Divisional Crime Officer in Ariaria Police Division, Aba in Abia State, according to report by the police authorities in the state.  The victim of the attack was a man named Mohammed, an Assistant Superintendent of Police. He would have been lynched by the mob, but he escaped thanks to providence.  The hoodlums that attacked him were out protesting against the death of one of their own, a trader that was killed earlier by a police officer.  News filtered to the airwaves few days ago about how security operatives suspected to be policemen by the traders, gunned down a trader during a raid by the security operatives in the area.

The mob attacked the police officer on Friday and this had led to complete disruption of social activities in the town.  The market where the trader was shot down remained locked down as at the time of filing this report. The areas surrounding the market too were almost completely deserted; residents feared what could be the police’s response to this renewed spate of violence. Some days ago, the market and its environs were raided by security operatives. In the course of the raid, the unfortunate trader was shot down. There is no clear evidence as regards who conducted the said raid, but residents claimed that the police was responsible.  

To show their grievance regarding the unfortunate death of one of their own, the traders and residents staged a protest in the town, which almost cost Mohammed his life. One of the factors that prompted the protest was the denial by the police regarding the shooting; the police claimed that they were not responsible for the death of the trader, though they admitted that they are privy of the trader being shot dead. Making a statement regarding the raid that led to the trader’s death, Mr. Udeviotu Onyeke the Police Public Relations Officer,   said the raid was carried out on the market by the operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency and not the Nigerian police.  Mr. Onyeke disclosed that the area raided was suspected to be a haven of hard drug dealers.

Onyeke said the NDLEA operatives were resisted by the suspected drug dealers and that the former were forced to go back for reinforcement. They invaded the area again and this led to a scuffle between the suspected drug dealers and the operatives of the NDLEA, which resulted in the death of the trader. In order to show their grievance, the other traders took the body of the dead trader in a wheelbarrow to the police station at Ariaria. According to the PPRO, the DCO made effort to explain to the traders that the police was not responsible for the attack. But all explanations and appeals fell on deaf ears and the mob almost lynched him. The DCO became unconscious after the mob gave him a deep machete cut on his head. Police men from the Aba Area Command repelled the mob when they made attempt to burn down the Ariaria Police Station; they were however able to steal the DCO’s phone and rifle before they were repelled.