From Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha
The combined team of security operatives have sacked members of Amafor Nkpor community and traders operating under the Nkpor flyover bridge in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State.
The operatives, who came and started shooting sporadically to sack community leaders and traders operating under the bridge thereby causing tension.
The situation made the community leaders, traders, and passersby, to scamper for safety.
Chairman of Amafor Nkpor Agu, Mr. Emmanuel and other community leader at press briefing, condemned the attack on their people, stressing that the community has been doing business under the bridge since 1999, without any disturbance.
Mr Emmanuel , wondered why security operatives came to attack the community.
He , however,called on Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, to intervene and investigate the action of the operatives.
According to him,the motives of the attackers were not known, adding that it took the grace of God to safeguard his people from several gun shots released to scare them away .
Idemili ,said that the community has been doing business under the bridge based on the letter of authority given to them by the Federal Ministry of Works to operate where it controls the parks and markets to generate revenue and remit to the state government without rancour.
“We are surprise today to see some masked security operatives,who stormed our area particularly at the flyover bridge and started shooting indiscriminately to cause tension. As it is now , I am not sure how many people that were injured, because many people ran into different directions. So, as of now I don’t know whether there was any causality or not but everybody closed shops and ran for dear lives.
“Although we had issues with the then local government authority, where they told us to leave the area,but a meeting was held where it was settled amicable and we continued with our business. So, I don’t know why they came to attack us today. I want governor Soludo to intervene and look into the matter and resolve it to avoid further disturbances.
“Now, traders and others doing business under the bridge have been thrown into suffering and hardship because they shut their businesses unduly and may be afraid to come out tomorrow if, it is not resolved” Idemili stated.
A government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that community leaders, traders and hoodlums were told to vacate under bridge for free flow of traffic but they refused.
He said that the place belonged to state government despite the fact that the road is a federal government road, stressing that the state built the flyover bridge based on the approval of the federal government where all compensations were paid to the land owners and wondered why the community leaders refused to vacate the place and continue to extort money from innocent citizens.