Youths protest death of hunter in hands of police
The youths of Amaekpu Ohafia are threatening to deal with policemen attached to the area over the death of a 70-year-old hunter, Chief Kalu Nnoke Okowu, popularly called Crossca.
Okowu youths are angry with the police in the area for allegedly beating the old man to death in the process of arresting him over an alleged shooting of a fellow hunter while they were hunting in the bush.
However, the intervention of the military from the Goodluck Jonathan Barracks in Ohafia saved the situation as they came and doused the community which was evidently on the verge of exploding into violence against the police.
Speaking with newsmen in Ohafia about the incident, a source said until his violent death in the hands of the policemen, Okowu was a jovial and peace loving man. The source said that some months back, Crossca who was the Chairman of Ohafia hunters Association, went on a hunting expedition with some of his colleagues when accidental discharge occurred, a situation which led to some pellets hitting one of them known as Agwu Kalu Oba alias Aliko in the leg.
He said Aliko who was quickly taken to Ebem hospital where he was treated and later discharged and was recuperating at home, was alleged to have gone with policemen to arrest some of the hunters who were with him when the gunfire accident occurred.
Concluding his account on how Kalu Nnoke Okowu died, the source said, “He (Aliko) with the police arrested his elder brother, Akuma Kalu Oba and one Julius and in the process of trying to arrest Crossca, broke his door and started heating him with guns and in the process he collapsed. All efforts by doctors to revive failed.”
Following the death of Okowu, youths gathered to descend on the police office in the area when the military came to rescue the situation.
The Police Public Relations Officer of the state, Ogbonnaya Nta referred the reporter to the Commissioner of Police, Leye Oyebade, who replied through a text message, “That is not correct, get the true picture of the incident from the DC, SCID.”