Military Arrests Fleeing Soldier for Shooting Judiciary Worker

Okon Bassey in Uyo

Authorities of the Nigerian Army saturday said the soldier that attempted to kill a Judiciary staff member of the Akwa Ibom State Government, Mr. Godwin Udoaka last Wednesday, has been arrested.

Assistant Director, Army Public Relations, Captain Shuaib Umar, who disclosed this in a statement issued in Uyo, hinted that Regimental Inquiry was in progress.

He said the Commander, 2nd Brigade Nigerian Army, Brig-General Abdu Ibrahim Hassan had visited the victim at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH). During the visit to Udoaka in the hospital, Hassan was said to have assured him that the Command would provide necessary support to ensure his quick recovery.

Umar in the statement disclosed that the soldier (identity undisclosed) involved has been arrested and Regimental Inquiry was in progress to ensure appropriate disciplinary measure is taken in order to prevent future recurrence.

Responding on behalf of the family, Mrs. Udoaka thanked the Commander for finding time despite his tight schedules to visit her husband in the hospital. “I want to thank you very much sir on behalf of my husband and my children. God will bless you sir’, she declared.

Udoaka, a driver attached to the State Judiciary narrowly escaped death as he was shot at close range by the soldier attached to Wizzchino Engineering Ltd, Uyo.

The incident happened at about 12:45pm on Asutan by Udo Street junction, close to the Secretariat of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists’ (NUJ), Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

While Udoaka was immediately rushed to the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH) by sympathisers where he is receiving treatment, the soldier was said to have disappeared with the company vehicle before mob attack.

An eye-witness said the driver of the Judiciary vehicle and his counterpart of Wizzchino Engineering Ltd had arrived the area from an opposite direction at the same time, but they could not initiate their way out due to double packing of cars on the streets.

In a minor exchange of words over the right of way, the soldier who sat in the front seat of the vehicle reportedly fumed over the judiciary driver’s insistence that the driver of the Wizzchino Engineering Company should go back for him to pass.

The soldier was said to have stepped out from the Toyota Hilux Van with the registration number: ABC 222 AY and shot the Judiciary driver on the face.