Crime at Ogui
The successful robbery and manoeuvring of the three vans containing the medical supplies sent from Abuja to help combat the spread of the ravaging Coronavirus had just been completed. Just a few blocks from the Enugu State Teaching Hospital: about four armed men hopped out of a big black Toyota van, shooting sporadically into the air, sending observers and passers-by haphazardly scrambling for the closest place of refuge, away from the impending danger.
An eye witness who was a policeman had promptly phoned a commander at the army base about the incident shortly after its occurrence, informing him of the location, vehicle description and the route the armed men had taken.
They took a turn few meters away from the robbery location swerved around an intersection point, before taking a straight road heading towards Ogui.
A sizeable number of solders were seen viciously stomping their boots on the tarred major road, sending jitters down the spine of bystanders and onlookers. They redirected incoming vehicles to take a different route from where two military pick-ups vehicles had been packed diagonally.
A few moments later, the big black Toyota van was seen approaching swiftly with reckless abandon. Based on the intel given to them by the informant, the soldiers knew they had spotted their target.
In a typical fashion the soldiers brought out their assault rifles, while the commanding soldier shouted:
“Stop there! Park! March out of the vehicle immediately! Raise your hands after doing that, or face the full force of the Nigerian Army.”
The armed men came out of the van and did quite the contrary by opening fire at the soldiers.
It was a fierce barraging of gun shots, as bystanders and observers took to their heels saving their heads as much as they could.
Two of the armed men were killed, including a soldier and two civilians with one soldier severely injured. The other two armed men arrested by the soldiers, with their vans and rifles also confiscated and the medical supplies recovered.
A short distance from the scene a journalist who worked for the Enugu State Broadcasting Corporation had witnessed the sporadic shooting while driving down the road, and had promptly videotaped the incident.
As the incident began clearing she bewailed verbally in a loud pitch to any of the onlookers who cared to listen, saying:
“This is the Government’s fault, they should have put adequate palliative measures to help ameliorate the situation of the poor masses.”
The position of the bodies belonging to the two dead civilians made it quite deductible that they had been killed by the shots fired by the soldiers.