Bakassi Boy kills birthday Girl in Aba

Tragedy struck in Aba at the weekend when an unknown operative of the Abia State Vigilante Service, AVS, popularly known as ‘Bakassi Boys’, shot dead a female birthday celebrant at a popular eatery in Ariaria area of the city.

Eyewitnesses told Vanguard that the celebrant was attracted to sporadic gunshots being fired by the AVS operative and appealed to him to stop as her guests were terrified. But the gun allegedly went off and hit the celebrant who died on the spot.

  

The incident caused tension in the area, forcing customers at the fast food centre to scamper to safety while business owners shut their shops. The AVS operative would have been lynched by an angry mob but for the timely intervention of a police patrol team who was alerted to the scene.

“The lady was celebrating her birthday at the fast food. She went outside as her guests complained of gunshots being fired. The lady was asking him why he shot into the air having known that she was hosting her friends at the fast food. As she approached the Bakassi man, we heard another gunshot and the lady shouting for help. She died before she could receive medical attention, “eyewitnesses said.

A team of policemen later took her corpse away amidst a crowd of tears from sympathizers. Attempts to reach the spokesman of the Abia state police command ,ASP Ogbonnaya‎ Nta proved abortive, but a senior Police officer at the Ariaria Division said the matter has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, Umuahia.