Father Of Three Gunned Down By Police On Eve Of Independence Day

Jude Ossai, Enugu

Onyema in a pool of his own blood (inset)
while still aliveNORMALLY, Nigerians mark the nation’s Independence Anniversary, October 1, with pomp and circumstance, remembering with nostalgia, the lowering of the British flag, the Union Jack flag, which was replaced with the Nigerian green-white-green own way back in 1960.

In Enugu, the capital of Enugu State, however, this year’s celebration was received with a note of sadness following a chain of tragedies that almost eclipsed the Coal City.

While no fewer than 18 persons had lost their lives in an accident that involved a Peugeot 608 bus that ran into a ditch at Okwosa street right inside Enugu, a trigger-happy police officer also cut short the life of an insurance graduate whose name was given as Samuel Ekendilichukwu Onyema.

Speaking to the Saturday Tribune, the wife of the deceased, Mrs. Nonye, said that although the police had accepted responsibility for the incident, the authorities were yet to make an adequate compensation.

“The police are yet to show us the man that shot my husband. At the moment, no policeman had come to our house to sympathize with us. There should be adequate compensation,” she added.

Mrs. Onyema stated that she was surprised that the police had not at least as at the time of going to press deemed it fit to commiserate with the family as they (Police) only last Monday took them to Government House, Enugu, where they were supposed to meet Governor Sullivan Chime on the matter.

The Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Maurice Jacob, who took them to the governor, according to Mrs Nonye Onyema, had come out from the office of the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) with a N250,000.00 cheque, which he announced as compensation.

The entire proceedings had irked the wife of the deceased who complained that the paltry sum was an insult to the bereaved family, adding that the said money could not even pay the house rent of her late husband.

Saturday Tribune recalled that the 35-year-old 1998 insurance graduate from the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) was on a visit to his friend along College Road, Enugu, where he met his untimely death.

The security operatives were pursuing an armed robbery suspect and it was in the process of shooting the fleeing criminal that a stray bullet fell the young man who was chatting with his friend.

Onyema, it was reported, had cried out for help as he writhed in the pool of his own blood and died immediately while the police had left him and carried away the corpse of the robber whom they eventually allegedly killed in their 504-saloon car on the way to Ogui Police Station.

The police, it was said, had chased the suspected robber from Udoji street before firing at him at 16, College Road, even after the suspect had thrown off his gun.

To Okafor, the friend whom the deceased was visiting, the situation was like a war. The police, he said, were shooting indiscriminately, adding, “I was lucky as I would have been dead also. Bullets flew past me like fire, from front and back. What I saw next was my friend shouting on the ground, cut down by a bullet.”

Onyema who was making a sojourn in Togo before returning to his country, had dumped trading for the classroom to pick a degree in hope of making a better living. He got married in 2002 to Nonye from Awka Etiti in Anambra State.

In fact, the Abagana-born businessman could not find a suitable white-collar job as he went back to his old trade by opening a shop at Ogbete Main Market, Enugu, where he sold household materials.

A father of three, with his wife pregnant with a fourth, the deceased had left his children with some goodies and a promise to join them soon after, hardly aware that death was only a whistle away.

According to Mrs. Onyema, the only thing that would stop them from further action was adequate compensation from the police as the demise of the breadwinner had created a serious vacuum in the family.

“Our house rent is N145,000.00 and the children’s school fees are there to settle. At the moment the children have stopped going to school and they cry all day wanting to see their father”, she said, weeping profusely during the interview.

When Saturday Tribune visited the residence of the late Onyema at 52, Amechi Street, Uwani, Enugu, on Monday, sympathizers were still seen consoling the bereaved family. Meanwhile, the remains of Onyema has been deposited at the Orthopedic Hospital, Enugu.

The State Police Public Relations Officer, Mike Abattam, was not around for comment although he had earlier confirmed the death of the trader.