From Ogbonnaya Ndukwe, Aba
A 52-year-old local salad (Abacha in Igbo) seller, Mrs. Joy Igwe, did not have the slightest inkling of what fate had in stock for her on Friday, December 9, last year, as she stepped out of her home that fateful morning.
Already out for daily business, but dashed out to replenish a particular specie of pepper she used to spice up salad for her customers at the nearby New Market, along Onitsha Road, Enugu.
Though, the road appeared scanty because of five days sit-at-home declared by the ‘Autopilot’ group in solidarity with Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), yet, some economic activities were going on just as there were few vehicles on the road.
But unfortunately, the mother of four, (two boys and two girls), was reportedly hit by bullets of persons purportedly enforcing the sit-at-home in the South East.
Daily Sun gathered that Mrs Joy Igwe (nee Odogwu), hailed from Ogo-Afa, in Udi Local Council Area of Enugu State, but was married to Uchenna
Igwe, a commercial vehicle driver, from neighbouring Ebonyi State, with whom she lived with their children in Enugu.
Her elder brother, Rev. Celestine Odogwu, who pastors a new generation church in Aba, Abia State, told Daily Sun that his sister was shot in the arm and she ran from the New Market area with the bullet wound towards where her basin of salad was. He explained that on trying to cross a gutter, she missed her step and fell down, hitting her head on the tarred road in the process.
According to him, she was, some minutes later, confirmed dead at a nearby hospital by passers-by that trooped out, after the bandits had fled from the area, as she was said to have lost much blood before help came her way.
Rev Odogwu who sobbed as he recounted their ordeal said the family was devastated and in a quandary. He was further embittered that nobody nor any agency of government including the Police, had reached out to the family.
The cleric disclosed that their 80-year-old mother, Madam Joy Odogwu, became hysterical when she was informed of her daughter’s death and has been sick since then: “My family wants justice, but neither the police nor the Enugu State Government, had done anything to reach out to console us. It’s now weeks after the incident happened.
“One then begins to wonder the place of government in the life of the citizenry. They are the ones that urged us to ignore the sit-at-home orders, with assurances that they will protect us, but see now, none of them has asked questions or done anything about the incident that led to loss of innocent lives.
“It is really shameful that the authorities have left us to our fate.”