Gunmen Kill Two Brothers For Allegedly Giving Police Information
Some gunmen suspected to be members of the Eastern Security Network, the militant wing of the Indigenous People of Biafra, have reportedly killed two brothers and set their house ablaze in Aba, Abia State, southeast Nigeria.
The two brothers identified as Aaron Onuoha, 41 and Obinechi Samuel Onuoha, 35, were gruesomely assassinated in their family house at Ohanku by Udoka Street/Amucha, off Ngwa Road on Wednesday morning.
SaharaReporters gathered that the assailants who were reportedly numbering over 50 and wore black attire, invaded the house at about 1:20 am. They were said to have surrounded the house and cut off the electricity supply before some of them stormed the compound and killed the brothers.
According to sources, the assailants also burnt the house.
Samuel was a fashion designer based in Aba, while Aaron was a builder and a sculptor, who was based in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
Aaron had visited his brother on Tuesday evening to discuss family matters.
The hoodlums also allegedly attacked the Chief Security Officer of the area and burnt the security post.
A source said that the CSO narrowly escaped being killed by the assailants.
A close associate of the late Samuel who spoke to SaharaReporters on condition of anonymity, revealed that he was attacked last year by hoodlums suspected to be cultists but survived the attack.
“In that particular attack, it was in the daytime and he saw the faces of those who tried to kill him,” the source said.
He continued, “I find it unbelievable because that night when I got information about the incident, I rushed to the scene. And while I was going, I met several local security personnel at their checkpoints.
“So where were they when the brothers were being killed and their house set ablaze?”
According to him, he later heard a report that the assailants accused Samuel of giving out information to police about them and their hideouts.
He said, “I know that he had police friends who were working with the police Rapid Response Squad (RRS) in Aba.
“Before his gruesome killing, I had on one occasion asked whether he gave information about bad boys to the police and he said no. According to him, when he was attacked the last time by some cult group, he went to RRS office to see some of his friends, especially his in-law and one of the cult guys that shot at him. He told the in-law that this one was among those that attacked him and that is all.”
The source, however, regretted that no security agent either from the police division around the area or the RSS unit intervened during the attack until the morning when the criminals had gone.
Also speaking, a sibling of the deceased brothers, Agbeze Onuoha confirmed the tragic incident and called on security agencies to fish out the perpetrators to ensure that they face justice.
Lamenting the incident, he said his late brothers left behind 10 children – five each. He asked how he would cope with caring for the wives and children left behind.
Narrating the unfortunate incident, Agbeze, an employee of Enugu Electricity Distribution Company in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, said, “I came back to see my mother on Saturday and I was supposed to go back to my working station on Wednesday. Unfortunately, that early Wednesday morning, my phone rang; it was my nephew. He called to tell me that two of my brothers had been killed.
“The elder one Aaron is living at Uyo in Akwa Ibom State but came back to see his brother in Aba on Tuesday and they were killed together. That is what I can say, I don’t know what transpired. I just came to see our mother in Aba because my family is in Okigwe, Imo State while I am working in Abakaliki.
“So when I got the report, I went there and saw what happened and reported to the police. They came and carried their corpses to the mortuary.”
He added that Samuel’s wife who was present when the assailants killed the brother, said the killers drove her and her five children out of the house before burning it.
He said according to her, the assailants were more than 50 in number and were in black attire.
He added, “From the information I gathered, their killers said Samuel was giving information to police where they are. Even the children said when they went to fetch water, some people were telling them that their father used to give information to the police about them.”
“My family is demanding justice; the police should fish out their killers and make them pay for their crimes,” he said.
Agbeze, however, noted that he had informed Aaron’s wife about the tragic incident, adding that he was “planning to bury them next week”.
When contacted the spokesperson for the state police command, SP Geoffrey Ogbonna, for an update, he declined to comment.
