Panic At Nkpor Junction As Civil Defense Corps Arrest A Northerner

There was tension and a stampede yesterday at the popular Nkpor Junction in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State, near Onitsha when officials of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps, NSCDC arrested a northerner with a six inches nail and lighter in his possession.

The stampede was occasioned by the struggle between the northerner and the defense corps. On-lookers and inhabitants of the area scampered for safety, suspecting that the six inches nail and lighter found on him was an explosive waiting to be ignited with the lighter.

An officer of the Corps who spoke to newsmen after they had over-powered the northerner and whisked him off to their office for interrogations, said trouble started when a commercial motorcyclist who was hired by the northerner to convey him from Umuoji, a nearby community to Nkpor junction, noticed that he was having unknown objects in his possession, but he decided not to confront him until they arrive Nkpor junction.

The officials said on getting to the junction, the motorcyclist dropped the northerner right in front of the Civil Defence Corps who were stationed at the junction with their patrol van to monitor the movements of people in the area and informed them that he was suspecting that the northerner had a dangerous object in his possession.

They further stated that the northerner resisted initial attempt by the Civil Defence officials to search him, adding that he even landed a very hot blow on the face of one of their officers who wanted to do the search, adding that it was at that time that other officers joined hands, over-powered and whisked him away to the civil defence office, for proper searching and interrogations.

He however noted that on getting to their office, he was searched and only the nail and lighter were recovered from him, which prompted his release, after the interrogations.

Observers of the scenerio said when they saw from afar something like explosive and lighter recovered from the northerner, they suspected that members of the detained Boko haram insurgents who were recently relocated to Ekwulobia prisons in Aguata Local Government Area of the state, from the north, may have arrived Anambra to terrorize peace-loving Anambra people in particular and South east in general.

They expressed the fear that the relocation of the prisoners might attract the presence of their members into the state for bad, adding that ever since then, they have been living in fears and anxiety.