By Amos OKioma
A team of Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) in the early hours of Tuesday shot a neighbourhood watch member in Ikarama, Yenagoa Local Government Area in Bayelsa and consequently trigged a youth protest.
It would be recalled that an operative of the NSCDC had in 2017 shot at a medical doctor, damaging his vehicle, over skirmishes with a stray dog.
It was learnt that the NSCDC team had arrested a female suspect in place of the husband and an argument with the local vigilance group led to the shooting.
Mr Ben Warder, a youth leader in the area said that the victim, Perekurofa Odoyibo, was shot twice on the arm and leg by the Civil Defense men who had taken custody of female suspect when the husband was not available.
“The local vigilance team noticed the NSCDC van at about 3am and was trying to find out why they had to take away a woman who is having children under care for an offense supposedly committed by the husband.
“They shot one of them and sped off with the woman they had arrested.
“They came from the oilfield in Ikarama operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company, and that is why the youths got mobilized and blocked the road to the Okordia manifold.
“So this morning, the youths subsequently mobilised to protest the use of security men to molest oil communities. This is because we learnt that the arrest is linked to an oil spill incident,” the youth leader said.
A visit to the Ikarama oilfields showed that youths from the area had commenced a protest and barricaded the access road to the manifold chanting solidarity songs.
The wife to the victim, Rebacca Odoyibo, regretted that her husband was shot and left in a pool of his blood and had been in pains.
She said that the incident has thrown the entire family and dependants into confusion with the breadwinner cut down in his prime.
“Look at what they did to my husband who volunteered for the community vigilance work, he is there in pains and we lack the resources to take him to the hospital and we resorted to local treatment for economic reasons,” he said.
However, Mr Orukari Udoji, whose wife, Deborah, was arreested, said that he was out in the forests for his timber lumbering work when the NSDC stormed his residence and took away his wife.
“I am at a loss on what to do because I do not even have an idea of where they took her to, and as we speak I don’t even have money to pay transport to go in search.
“Everybody in this community knows that I do timber work and by the time they came I was in the bush working and they claimed that there was an oil spill in the bush near where I felled some timber,” he said.
Mr Godwin Nwachukwu, Bayelsa Commandant of the NSCDC, said in a telephone chat that he received a report of the incident and immediately assigned his men to find out ‘what exactly happened.
“As we speak, the matter is being investigated, the preliminary investigation will guide us on the next step,” Nwachukwu said.
Meanwhile residents said that at about 1pm, the NSCDC team reinforced and returned to the community shooting indiscriminately and arresting people in the area.
“They came back with two buses and have been arresting more people even as the person they gunned down is struggling for life,” a source said by phone.
