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Abakaliki: Police shooting
leaves 10 protesters critically wounded
Newsdiaryoline Fri April 15,2011
The Police in Abakaliki
yesterday,14th April,2011, shot into the crowd with
tear gas and rubber bullets and
forcefully dispersed a peaceful procession led by a
former Senator Dr Emmanuel Onwe, Chief Fidelis Nwankwo both
Senatorial candidates for the All Progressive Grand Alliance,
APGA, and All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP respectively in the
just held NASS elections in Ebonyi State, and other notable
politicians. The incident left more than 10 people including a
pregnant woman, a passer-by, lying critically wounded and
receiving treatment at the Ebonyi State Teaching Hospital,
Abakaliki. The
protesters, who were a coalition of registered political parties
in Ebonyi
State, were protesting what they termed
was the partisan role the Nigeria police played in the State
in the last National Assembly elections. They alleged that some
members of the police aided the ruling party in the State to
divert election materials to places other than the designated
centres for the elections and were allegedly used to intimidate
members of the public to dissuade them from casting their votes
in some areas.
Addressing the crowd at
the Peoples Club arena from where they set out for the office of
the Commissioner of Police in Abakaliki, Senator Onwe and Chief
Nwankwo charged the youths not to be docile in the face of
politics of imposition of candidates that was being practiced in
the State. They reiterated that it was their responsibility to
take their destiny in their own hands as the people who are
maintaining a stranglehold on power were not prepared to let go.
The candidates observed that democracy meant a government of the
people by the people and for the people and not a situation
where a handful of individuals would be lording their wishes
over the majority.
They remarked that the
peaceful protest march to the office of the Commissioner of
Police was a way they could register their displeasure at the
role of the police in the State who ordinarily were supposed to
maintain law and order but turned themselves to willing tools in
the hands of the politicians to thwart democracy.
Things however went awry
when the protesters numbering over 300 carrying placards with
the inscriptions such as: Police in Ebonyi rigged our NASS
election; Ebonyi Police compromised; Police robbed us our votes
among others, were halted by a combined team of policemen near
the Area Command, along Ezza Road. The police detachment was led
by the Area Commander. The policemen shot into the crowd and
dispersed them when it was certain that they were not ready to
shelve their planned protest to the office of the Commissioner
of Police. In the pandemonium that ensued a lot of people
sustained various degrees of injury.
Commenting on the
development, Senator Onwe said that he was embarrassed that the
police in Nigeria could use force on people
who were embarking on a peaceful protest march.
In his reaction when he
was contacted on the issue, the State Police Public Relations
Officer, ASP John Aluu said that the Police action was in the
interest of the State. He said that the police feared that with
the tension in the State as a result of the NASS elections, the
march could be hijacked by hoodlums to cause a breakdown of the
public peace. He however said that nobody was arrested by the
police as a result of the incident and that the Police were
prepared to enforce peace in the State. He however did not
comment on the alleged role of some policemen in the State which
precipitated the protest.
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