Motor mechanic kidnapped in Aba… apprentice shot

BY OUR REPORTER

The spate of insecurity in Abia State, south east Nigeria, intensified yesterday with the kidnapping of an auto mechanic, along Opobo Road, Aba, by yet-to-be-identified gunmen.

The gunmen were said to have seized the mechanic, whose name was given as Ngozi Alozie, as he was driving in a Toyota Sienna bus belonging to one of his customers, at about 8pm.

Sources told Saturday Vanguard that the gunmen also shot his apprentice on the leg and threw him out of the bus and sped off. The apprentice is now receiving medical attention at an undisclosed hospital in the city.

Police Public Relations Officer, Abia State Command, SP Geoffrey Ogbonna, who confirmed the incident, said that policemen later recovered the Sienna bus at Isiala Ngwa area of the state.

Ogbonna disclosed that another vehicle abandoned by the gunmen was also recovered.

Reacting to the rate of insecurity in Aba, some residents of the city urged the Abia State government to re-establish a vigilante group in the state.

They further urged Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu and the state Commissioner of Police, Ene Okon, to make haste to curb the spate of robbers using tricycles in broad daylight attacks in Aba.

“This was exactly what we were experiencing from the early and late 90s before the state government took a bold step to establish the Abia State Vigilante Group a.k.a Bakassi, which helped to solve the problem.

“From what we are seeing now, the soldiers here in Aba are no longer interested in their jobs. The military units situated in various parts of Aba have failed to act, even when they heard gunshots. They only stay at their units and deploy small boys to be collecting money from motorists,” one of the respondents stated.

There have been reported cases of violent armed robbery and kidnapping attacks recently in Abia State, particularly Aba, the commercial capital. Most of these cases resulted in the death of the victims.