Abia Commissioner of Police Ene Okon has disclosed the policeman that killed one Ifeanyi Arunsi, a provision store owner in Ebem Ohafia, Ohafia Local Government Area of the state acted under the influence of alcohol.
Youths of Ebem community, during the protest of the death of Arunsi, burnt police patrol vans, setting ablaze, DPO quarters, freeing suspects in the police cell and damaging parts of the court building in the area on Saturday.
Okon, in a statement by the Command’s Public Relations Officer, SP Geoffrey Ogbonna, explained the police constable who shot the deceased has been arrested alongside his colleagues that went drinking with him.
“The Nigeria Police Abia State Command has received with nostalgia the shooting incident in Ebem Ohafia by a Policeman which consumed the life of an innocent young man identified as Ifeanyi Arunsi on Friday 17th April 2020 night.
“The Policemen led by an Assistant Superintendent of Police who were neither on duty nor on COVID 19 preventive assignment, went out in a private car belonging to one of them to a drinking joint where they got drunk and while going back home, the driver hit a truck off-loading goods.
“In an ensuing argument between the Policemen and the people off-loading goods, one of the “Policemen, a Constable disappeared from the scene and resurfaced with a Police rifle and started shooting sporadically under the influence of alcohol during which, a bullet hit the victim on the buttocks.
“This singular act and others of the same nature is regrettable, condemnable and not tolerated by both the Nigeria Police Force and its Abia State Command.
“The Commissioner of Police Abia State, CP E. Ene Okon commiserates with the immediate and extended families of the deceased as well as the entire Ohafia people.
“It is the Commissioner of Police’ sordid appeal to the youths and people of Ebem Ohafia to eschew violence and destruction of Police/government property while assuring that justice must be done.
“Meanwhile the erring Policemen have been arrested for investigation and eventual prosecution while the corpse of the deceased has been deposited in a yet to be disclosed morgue by members of his family for preservation.
“Further developments will be made public while the investigation lasts.”