By Sunny A. David, Onitsha
A 72-year-old man and community leader, Mr. Vincent Uzoagbala, was gunned down by suspected assassins in front of his house at Awuda quarters of the town.
Mr. Uzoagbala was the Administrative Secretary of Nnobi Welfare Association in Nnobi, Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State.
According to a son of the deceased, Mr. Afamefuna who witnessed the incident, an 18-seater bus pulled up in front of his [son] shop outside their compound and as if the occupants were looking for someone, a development that aroused his curiosity and decided to stand by to watch what was going on.
According to him, the vehicle eventually stopped in front of his shop and two men came out and requested for a can of soft drink.
“As I went in to bring the drink, two others came out of the vehicle and then ordered the only customer in the shop to stand up and face the wall. While some were with me, two others were in my other shop where they held my assistant hostage and others mounted sentry at the gate leading to our compound. I then asked them what the problem was because I thought they were security agents.
“They said that I should follow them. But I told them that if it is for me to follow them, I should, first of all, inform my father who was inside the compound. Just then my father showed up,” he narrated.
Mr. Afamefuna said as soon as his father appeared, one of the men gave a sign to another one carrying a gun and that before he knew what was happening, he pointed the gun at his father and shot him at a close range and his father died.
The deceased son said the gunmen seized his phone as one of them removed the Plasma Television set on the wall and two packs of can coke he bought which he was yet to put in the deep freezer.
He explained that as they were about to enter their vehicle, he overheard one of them who looked like their leader asking the one that shot his father to go ahead and shoot him as well, a situation that gave him the instinct to run away, despite the odds.
Mr. Afamefuna noted that if the gunmen were armed robbers, they would have asked for money and other valuables and possibly ransacked the whole place.
On whether his father was having a dispute with people, he replied that he did not know and that if there was one he is not aware of it.
He also said that he had no problem with anybody because if he had, they would have killed him first as he was the first to be seen.
When contacted on phone, the Anambra State Police spokesperson Mr. Haruna Mohammed (SP) did not pick my calls.
