Youths of the Ntueke Community in the Ideato South Local Government Area of Imo state on Saturday evening blocked the Akokwa-Okwelle highway in protest.
The youths, who bore placards with various inscriptions which depicted their anger, called on the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, and the state Commissioner of Police, Muhammed Berde, to ensure that the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Ideato North Police headquarters, Chris Ikemere, who allegedly shot a young man, Emeka Dike, in a pub on Wednesday night, does not escape justice.
Dike, 44, a father-of-four, was said to have returned from Lagos for the funeral rites of his relationship when he was allegedly shot at a pub in the area by the DPO.
The youth leader of Ntueke Community, Ifeanyi Obiekwe, who spoke to journalists while the protest was going on said that he was with the victim when the DPO who arrived in a vehicle with two women shot Dike “because he asked him to repack his vehicle”.
He said that the shooting happened at a bar called Emma Ocha beer parlor in the Uruala community in Ideato-North LGA of the state.
The youth leader said, “Both the DPO, his victim, and myself were at a beer parlor. We came to have some evening comfort and to relax. When the DPO arrived, there was a face-off between the two.”
He revealed that before the face-off, the DPO branded the young men members of the Eastern Security Network and as he contacted his office, requested his boys to help to get rid of the “bad boys” at the beer spot.
He continued, “The trigger-happy police officer could not exercise patience. As the young boys around were demanding that he should pack his jeep properly, he reached out for his pistol and shot one of them, and drove off immediately and took refuge at the police divisional headquarters, very close to the scene of the event.
“If not for the prompt and mature intervention of the Area Commander of Ideato Police Area Command, who rushed the young man to the hospital and ensured that he received proper treatment, he would have been dead by now.
“We are happy that the DPO has been arrested but we are calling for his prosecution. The police authority should ensure justice in this matter. Our brother, a family man, is lying critically in a hospital now owing to the wickedness of a police officer who is being paid with taxpayers’ money.
“The annoying thing is that the trigger happy DPO is from our neighboring community of Isiekenesi. I asked him if he wanted to kill his brother, and he shouted at me and threatened to shoot me if queried him again. I dared him before the Area Commander ordered that he be disarmed together with his ADC.”
The Police spokesperson for the command, Michael Abattam, had yet to respond to the development but a senior police source, who doesn’t want to be quoted because he was not permitted to speak to the press, said that the DPO had been arrested and transferred to the command headquarters in Owerri, the state capital.
