Wedding turns sour as policeman shoots guest
From Sunny Ogefere,
Asaba
WHAT has been described as a careless shot from a mobile policeman last Saturday turned a marriage ceremony to a sombre tragedy.
The ceremony was at its peak. Eli, 22, a female undergraduate of the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, was dancing away rapturously with the bride of the day, Isioma.
Then a shot rang out... Eli froze in mid-dance, then crumbled in a tangle of dresses. And in a split-second moment of horror, which seemed to last for eternity, a crimson liquid began gathering where Eli's plaited head lay.
The next moment, all hell broke loose as guests, hosts, bride and bridegroom ran for dear life.
According to a witness, one of the mobile policemen who accompanied the couple from Port Harcourt to Asaba for the marriage, fired into the air out of excitement but one of the bullets hit Eli in the head.
"Immediately, the girl fell down sprawling on the ground with blood all over her face and the upper part of the body," the witness stated.
Pandemonium broke out as other guests who came to honour the marriage that took place at Umudiake quarters by Ibusa Road, scampered for safety.
It was gathered that an enraged crowd immediately descended on the mobile policeman beating him severely while his rifle and that of another of his colleagues were removed by unknown persons.
Eli was rushed to a hospital but all efforts to save her life failed. She died later that Saturday.
Witnesses also disclosed that the men of the Quick Respond Squad (QRS) of the state Police Command arrived at the scene and took away the mobile policeman whom they claimed was in a coma as at Saturday night.
Efforts to know the whereabouts and state of health of the mobile policeman were fruitless. But there were conflicting claims.
A source however, informed The Guardian that the mobile policeman died yesterday while another source claimed that he was still in a coma.
Policemen seen at the state Police Command headquarters as well as the 'A' Divisional Headquarters declined comments on the matter.
The state Police Commissioner, Mr. Charles Akaya, could not be reached but the command's spokesman, Mr. Victor Obasuyi, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), said he was in Benin City, when contacted on telephone.
Later when The Guardian got through to Akaya on phone, he said that the two mobile policemen involved were still in a coma in the hospital.
"They are unconscious in the hospital and so we could not talk to them yet to get the details of what happened," he stated.
However, it was learnt that one of the policemen had been discharged and was currently placed under detention.
