How Men Alleged to Be SSS Personnel Shot A  Final Year Student Of UNIJOS Over A Missing Handset

Yakubu Ventim

Pandemonium broke out in Jos North local Government Area of Plateau state as four  armed men alleged to be officers of of the State Security Service (SSS) on Tuesday  in Jos killed one Mr. Hezekiah, a  final year student of the University of Jos over a missing handset.

The incident which occurred at about  4:pm  at the G.S.M Plaza, located around the popular Ahmadu Bello Way resulted to mass protest by hundreds of phone sellers and repairers at the Ahmadu Bello Way who felt that their colleague was short innocently.

According to an eyewitness who is also a shop owner at the Plaza, Emmanuel Ehindero narrated that the incident happened when SSS personnel was attempting to apprehend one John Dan, who is into software applications and downloading over a missing handset alleged to have taken to him for repairs.

Dan, who was arrested by the SSS was said to be operating together with the victim, Hezekiah in the same shop.

The eyewitness said, “the personnel of the SSS claimed to have traced a missing phone at Dan’s shop. So the SSS operatives stormed the shop, Hezekiah then walked up towards them to ask what was happening  and then the SSS asked him to join Dan and if he run they would shoot him.

“So, as Hezekiah heard of what the SSS said, he then became afraid and attempted to run but suddenly he was shot  from behind at a close range, ” he added.

Asked whether the victim was dead, the eyewitness said the victim would hardly survive because the bullet came out of his stomach when he was shot him from the back, adding that the way he fell down, no one would be sure  if he would survive.

This medium gathered that soldiers and mobile police officers from Operation Safe Heaven and the police were seen everywhere around the scene of the incident to cool down the dust of any breaking of law and other.

The late Hezekiah was on Industrial Attachment with Johnson Sky phone company in Ahmadu Bello way Jos.

This medium gathered that the STF officers attached to the JEDC office in Ahmadu Bello way attempted to question the rationale behind the shooting but were rebuffed by the DSS officers who took Hezekiah alongside John Dan away. He was first taken to Jos University Teaching Hospital JUTH from where he was transferred to Plateau Hospital where he gave up the ghost.

It was gathered that major roads linking Terminus market were blocked completely from motorists  plying the road leading to heavy traffic hold up for over 3 hours before the situation was brought under control.

It was also  learnt that traders abandoned their goods for the fear of fresh violence in Jos North Local Government Area which is gradually enjoying peace.

In a related development, some group of  youths suspected to be hoodlums have   burnt down a police station at  Anguwan Rukuba, in Jos north local government area of Plateau State.

It was  gathered that the incident occurred following an arrest of  suppliers and users of an illicit drug popularly called  Monkey tail  in the early hours of Sunday at about 10am.

Our source revealed that ,the search of the  area by the combined personnel of the  Nigeria Police and National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) led to the arrest of the kingpin.

According to an eye witness from the area, it  said even though the Police had cooled down the dust that  Sunday evening, the notorious hoodlums however went back to the said police station and burnt it.

He  added that the burning of the station seemed not to be enough for the youths as they returned to the burnt station in the morning of yesterday(Monday and Tuesday) and destroyed it.

The Plateau state Commissioner of Police, Adekunle Oladunjoye,when contacted on phone denied the burning of the  police station .

He said the hullabaloo in the area was a misunderstanding between the vigilante and youths in the area and that the police had since intervened and settled the dust.

Meanwhile the Plateau state Police Command has paraded  a soldier, Sunday Umaru , who was alleged to have stabbed one Miss  Charity Thomas in the stomach to death around Riyom local government area of the state of the state.

The suspected soldier who was paraded  at the state police command Headquarters was said to have served with the 3rd armoured Division in Jos and attached to sector 7 of Operation Save Haven Jos (OPSH) before his arrest.

C.P. Adekunle Oladunjoye, while speaking to  newsmen said the suspect invited the victim from Kaduna to stay with him for a while,  but killed her as a result of the  text messages he saw on her phone cell which indicated to him (the suspect)that the stabbed girlfriend was having affairs with other men aside him.

The point gathered that the soldier was deployed to a village in Riyom LGA with other personnel of the OPSH to restore law and order. CP Oladunjoye said the suspect has been charged to court.

All effort to speak with the Police Public Relations officer, PPRO Plateau State Command proved abortive as he didn’t answer the calls put forward to him.