Residents of Umuchiakuma in Arochukwu Local Government Area of Abia were treated to an unusual tragic spectacle on January 4, 2018, when an Abuja-based society lady stormed the village with policemen and ordered them to open fire on youths who blocked her way
MONICA Ota Uche, an indigene of Umuchiakuma based in Abuja, is allegedly notorious for acts of criminality, including assaults and unlawful use of police escorts, whenever she visited the community.
On January 4, 2018, she allegedly ordered her police escorts to shoot Chimezie Anyaoha, a 35-year old engineer who had come home for a family wedding, for blocking her way.
More than one year after, she has allegedly used her connections at the nation’s capital to stop the police from filing murder charges against her. Now the family of the deceased are crying for justice.
THE WHISTLER traced Pastor Simon Anyaoha, father of the deceased engineer, to his residence at Umuchiakuma, Arochukwu local government where he expressed the family’s frustrations and their cries for justice.
Recounting the tragedy, Pastor Anyaoha, who is of the Watchman Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement in Arochukwu, said Uche ordered the police to kill his son in cold blood and in the glare of other youths in the community.
It all started when youths of the community blocked her from using her police escorts to abduct a patient at the Mercy Catholic Hospital. The patient was earlier shot by the police at the community primary school playground on the orders of Uche for allegedly destroying one of the canopies she used for rentage in the village.
According to Pastor Anyaoha, the deceased had rushed to the hospital when he heard that a boy had been shot in the leg by some policemen brought into the village by Uche for allegedly destroying a canopy that belonged to her.
“My son had come to the village for the wedding of the youngest sister of his mother which was to take place on January 4, 2018. Around 9am on that day, he prepared and went to the primary school where the wedding was to take place. On getting there, he discovered that a boy that used to work with him was shot by mobile policemen brought into the village by Monica Ota,
“The youths of the community rushed the boy to Mercy Hospital. My son then joined others to visit the hospital to see how the boy was faring. But on getting there, the story was that this woman took mobile policemen to the hospital to forcefully whisk the boy away.
“But the youths of the community who have heard what happened and that Monica was planning to take the boy away to an unknown destination, they mobilized themselves to prevent the policemen from taking the boy out of the village. They blocked road leading out of the village. My son also joined them.
“This woman ordered the police to open fire on the boys again. Even when the boys started running after police started shooting, they were still pursued. The police pursued my son into the bush where he tried to take behind a house and shot him dead. The bullet fired at him came in from one side of his stomach and came out through the other side. He was dead before they got him to the hospital.”
After Anyaoha confirmed the death of his son at the hospital mortuary, he reported the incident to the Arochukwu Police Station where they took his statement and a police officer was asked to confirm the death at the hospital.
The Arochukwu police reported the matter to the Abia State Command in Umuahia and three officials of the State Criminal Investigation Department came to Umuchiakuma village for further investigations. The father of the deceased was also asked to accompany them back to the state command to make further statements.
Officials of the C.I.D came back to the village a second time to speak with eye witnesses, including the traditional ruler of the village, Henry O. Umachi,and all of who confirmed how the deceased was shot by the police escort of Uche.
– May 23, 2019 @ 12:00 GMT |
