Hoodlums Beat Soldier to Death in Calabar

A soldier attached to the Amphibious Battalion Training School, Ikot Enim, Calabar has been reportedly beaten to death by hoodlums at Ikot Nakanda, Akpabuyo local government Area of Cross River State.

The soldier whose name was given as Sugibee Emmanuel, a private from Benue State, was deployed to GloTrust, a communications company that operates in the area as a security guard but over the weekend, he along with a colleague had confrontation with hoodlums, which led to his being beaten to death.

“His girl friend came to visit him so he and Umaru decided to go to the market at Ikot Nakanda on a motorcycle to buy some ingredients to prepare a meal for her but on their way to the market, a bus double crossed their motorcycle and they stopped the bus and asked if the driver knew who they were”. A source, which prefers anonymity, said.

The conductor, our source said, in turn asked the soldiers who were not wearing their uniform who they thought they were and with his right hand “showed them the ‘waka’ sign which in Hausa means ‘your mother’ and this infuriated the soldiers who grabbed the conductor and gave him severe beating”.

The beating of the conductor by Sugibee and Umaru was said to have attracted the sympathy of a commercial bike rider popularly known as ‘okada man’ who asked if they wanted to kill the boy.

“The okada man asked them if the beating was not yet okay since the boy had begun bleeding and the soldiers also grabbed the okada man and assaulted him too.”

The assault on the okada man by the soldiers allegedly angered his colleagues and other hoodlums who then went after the two soldiers with sticks and stones and when the attack became too much on them, Umaru was said to have escaped leaving behind Sugibee and by the time he came back, he saw his friend on the ground bleeding profusely and he had to rush him to the Akpabuyo General Hospital for medical attention but the attack was too much on the man and he died the on Sunday morning.

DSP Joe, the Officer- in- charge of Homicide at the Cross River State police Command headquarters, Diamond Hill, said one Glory Eno Edet, her son, Edet and the youth leader of Ikot Nakanda have been arrested and were undergoing interrogation.

Mr. Hogan Bassey, the spokesman for the state Police Command said the three arrested were being interrogated to get leads to others involved in the attack. “These three arrested are by no means all the suspect; we are interrogating them to get information on the other suspects”.

When CrossRiverWatch reporter visited Ikot Nkanda on Monday evening, the place was a ghost town as most people particularly youths have deserted the area for fear of revenge attack by soldiers or arrest by police.