There was uproar on Wednesday in Assa community, in the Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State, after a soldier allegedly shot and killed a 45-year-old petty trader, identified as Chinedu.

According to a village source, trouble started when some youths intercepted a truck loaded with locally-refined crude oil that was allegedly being accompanied to an unknown location by soldiers on a special duty in the community.

The youths demanded that the owners of the consignment give them money before they continued the trip.

The soldiers were reported to have prevented the truck owners from giving in to the demand of the youths.

The source said in order to scare the youths, who gathered around the truck, the military men fired shots into the air. However, a bullet hit the victim and he died on the spot.

The incident, which happened at Afor Assa Market, made the villagers to run helter-skelter for fear of being hit by stray bullets.

The source said; “On seeing the dead body of the man, the soldiers ran away with the truck driver, leaving the truck behind.

“However, the youth set the truck with its content ablaze. The dead body is yet to be deposited in a mortuary.”

Information gathered says the traditional ruler of Assa autonomous community, Eze Emmanuel Assor, was talking to the military hierarchy over the incident.

Also, the President General of the community, Mr Bartholomew Obodo, said he had met with the garrison commander and efforts were on to ensure that the culprits were arrested.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Orlando Ikeokwu, who confirmed the killing of the 45-year-old, said, the soldiers were not accompanying the persons carrying the crude oil.

Rather, the officers arrested the owners of the crude oil and were taking them to the military base in the community when the youths intercepted them.

Ikeokwu said it was in a bid to ward off the violent youths that the military men shot “consistently in the air, but unfortunately, a bullet hit the victim and he died.”

Accorsing to him, the state Commissioner of Police, Nasiru Muhammed, had ordered an investigation into the incident.A