Tragedy struck Friday in Onitsha, when a security guard in Ona-Jones petrol station shot and killed a 24-year-old boy at Our Line bus stop on Onitsha-Asaba expressway, Nkpor Down flyover.
The incident aroused angry mob which immediately stormed the filling station to lynch the security guard, but for the timely intervention of policemen, saved him from jungle justice.
Unable to get at the security guard, the mob mobilised to set the filling station ablaze, it also failed, but it succeeded in burning the vehicle parked in the filling station and touched some parts of the filling station.
It took the prompt intervention of policemen led by Area Commander of Onitsha, ACP Ezekiel Philip and Army officers from Onitsha military cantonment led by Major T.O. Ibrahim to salvage the situation.
The security personnel in their numbers prevented the angry mob from completely burning the filling station by shooting sporadically into the air to disperse them.
An eye witness revealed that the security guard mistakenly shot the boy who came to separate two other persons quarreling over N200 debt along the road when the security man came out from the filling station and grabbed the deceased and started beating him before his gun went off and killed the boy on the spot.
According to him, “two persons were quarreling over N200 debt on the road. The debtor gave his creditor N500 and demanded his balance, but he refused to give him. That was the time the quarrel ensued and other boys who saw what was happening came to prevail on the boy to give the man his balance of N300”.
“It was in the process that the security guard from the filling station came out and started pursuing them and grabbed the deceased, who was not involved in the quarrel, but only came to settle the matter and started beating and dragging him, and before we knew what was happening, the gun went off and killed the boy instantly” the source stated.
The police Area Commander in charge of Onitsha, said that immediately he got the distress call, he mobilised his men to the scene, which led to the arrest of the security guard and dispersing the mob.
He said that the corpse of the deceased whose identity was yet to be known has been deposited in the morgue, he condemned the action of the mob that wanted to set the filling station ablaze because the security guard who mistakenly killed the boy work at the station.
Meanwhile, security operatives from Army and police have taken over the filling station to ensure that the mob doesn’t return to completely raze it.
-Emmanuel Ikechukwu
