A young man was hacked down by a mob at about midnight and by the next morning, a group of people had fled the community, raising suspicions.
For the past two weeks, there has been an uneasy calm at Chikka, a community located along the Umar Musa Yar Adua Expressway (Airport Road), Abuja.
The sleepy rural settlement, which is a few kilometres away from the Abuja City Gate, was gripped by tension after a 32 – year old man, John Chinweonu, was murdered by a mob of commercial bike riders.
The young man’s life was cut down at its prime after he allegedly had a heated argument with a bike rider, whose full identity is yet to be ascertained. The cold-blooded murder happened in the late hours of Friday, the penultimate week. An eye witness told Inside Abuja that trouble ensued when the deceased came back home on a motorbike around 11: 30 pm.
On alighting from the bike, he handed over an N50 note to the rider as his fare, but the rider refused to accept it, claiming that it was not the appropriate fare for the journey.
Another account had it that the murdered young man gave the bike rider N100 and demanded for a N50 change, which the rider refused to oblige him. According to our source, the rider insisted that his deserved fare was N100, considering the fact that it was a late hour service.
This disagreement was said to have degenerated into a hot argument, as neither of the parties agreed with the other. Dissatisfied with the situation, the bike rider left the scene in anger.
A close neighbour, who pleaded anonymity, said a few minutes later, the enraged bike rider returned to the door step of the young man with some other people, bearing different dangerous weapons. In what seemed to be a brave response, Chinweonu came out from his house to confront the assailants. He was said to had succeeded in chasing them away with a cutlass.
Inside Abuja learnt that the bike rider and his accomplices didn’t give up, as they returned a second time to confront their target. This time, the assailants, numbering about 30 people, were armed to the teeth. Another eye witness said the return of the mob, brandishing dangerous weapons, scared people who were around the scene trying to pacify the situation.
The eyewitness, a female, disclosed that she and other people begged the deceased to leave his house to a safer place, but he refused, saying he must face the mob. His refusal to heed the advice from his neighbours and few onlookers who gathered, reportedly angered the peacemakers who, seeing the angry mob, withdrew for their own safety.
This second encounter with the mob, turned out to be a fatal mistake on the part of the young man, as the assailants fought and subdued him. In the scuffle, they stabbed him on several parts of his body, even as they chanted, “Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar!”
In a short while, he slumped and the murderers left him in the pool of his own blood, disappearing into the dark night. Inside Abuja’s investigation revealed that after the attackers had left their victim, some sympathisers in the neighbourhood rushed back to help him. He was reportedly taken to a nearby hospital, but was confirmed dead on arrival by medical personnel at the health facility.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO), Nigeria Police, FCT Command, Daniel Ndiparya, was yet to speak on the matter as at the time this report was filed. However, the incident has left the community not only in shock but with a number of challenges.
In the morning after the action of the murderous gangsters, residents of the community found out that there could be a strong link between those who murdered the trader and those who had been living among them as artisans, labourers and scavengers.
The resident of Chikaa now live without the services of bike riders, local water vendors, known as ‘ Mai Ruwa’ and those who collect refuse from homes with trucks, popularly called “Mai Bola.” Most residents who are not privileged to own cars are now forced to trek long distances whenever they are going out or returning to the community.
They are also forced to scout frantically for alternative ways of getting water and disposing their refuse on daily basis. Inside Abuja gathered that all those who used to provide these services, vanished from the community, immediately after the murder, to evade arrest or reprisals, as it was believed that many of them collaborated in committing the dastardly act.
One of the leaders of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in Chikka Community, Chief Silvanus Ezeugwu, who confirmed the murder incident has however, debunked the rumours that some Igbo youths were planning a reprisal attack. Ezeugwu said Igbo people are peaceful wherever they are found, and wouldn’t want to breach the law and peace of the community.
According to him, members of the business associations which the deceased belonged to, planned to storm the community for a wake keep, but the Police did not allow them. He stated that the corpse of the murdered young man had been taken for burial, tension had been doused and normalcy was returning gradually to the community.
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“A friend called and told me in the morning after the incident , that Chinweonu was murdered by a group of people who attacked him after he had a disagreement with an Okada rider Ezeugwu said: “I heard also that before he was rushed to the hospital, he had already died. I learnt that some of the people involved in the murder has been arrested and taken to Galadimawa Police station.
“There was no planned reprisal by Igbo youths, but the guy who was murdered was a spare parts trader at Utako market and member of one business Association at Apo.
“These groups he belonged to wanted to organise a wake keep for him, before taking his corpse to the village for burial. This plan for wake keep created tension in the community, so the Police Divisional Officer at Galadimawa stopped it.
“The wake keep was done just by his few friends within Chikka Community without those who were supposed to come from outside, because the Police did not allow them to come. Already the corpse had been taken to his village in Akpugo Nkanu in Enugu state for burial.” This incident, like others before it, raises another red flag about poverty, impunity and insecurity in Nigeria.
If all was well, a paltry sum of N50 could not have resulted in a big quarrel and there would have been no need for the subsequent violent attack by the mob. Ideally, the deceased ought to had called the police when he felt his life was in danger, but he chose to confront the situation himself, probably because he knew that the police usually does not respond to distress calls until hours after lives and property had been lost.“There was no planned reprisal by Igbo youths, but the guy who was murdered was a spare parts trader at Utako market and member of one business Association at Apo.
“These groups he belonged to wanted to organise a wake keep for him, before taking his corpse to the village for burial. This plan for wake keep created tension in the community, so the Police Divisional Officer at Galadimawa stopped it.
“The wake keep was done just by his few friends within Chikka Community without those who were supposed to come from outside, because the Police did not allow them to come. Already the corpse had been taken to his village in Akpugo Nkanu in Enugu state for burial.” This incident, like others before it, raises another red flag about poverty, impunity and insecurity in Nigeria.
As it is now, the police might not be able to track down the murderers because the prime suspect, the bike rider can safely migrate to another part of the city and continue his business.
He cannot be traced easily because most commercial motor cyclists in Abuja operate without licence and due registration of their bikes. Furthermore, the identity of the bike rider and his accomplices might not be on any known data base even with all the trouble Nigerians are subjected to by the National Identity Management Commission ( NIMC) and other agencies in the country.
Under this scenario, the incident might just end up as one more death in the hands of a marauding band of miscreants who are not just above the law but are so fluid and mobile that tracking them is like chasing shadows
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