By FELIX UKAH, Abakaliki

It was tragic in Abakaliki, Ebonyi state capital as a mad man yesterday brutally killed a commercial motorcycle operator, Mr Elias Ofoke.

It was by at Udensi Bridge in Abakaliki, a hub in the city centre.

It was gathered that the victim who hails from Agbaja Unuhu in Abakaliki Local Government Area of Ebonyi State was clubbed to death by the mad man after he had dropped a passenger around the area.

The mad man was said to have in the last two weeks constituted a nuisance and panic within the capital city following residents to scamper for safety on sighting the madman who always moves around with dangerous weapons.

It was also gathered that members of Neighborhood Security Watch had earlier made an attempt to arrest the mad man but all effort to arrest him was resisted by the mad man.

An eyewitness, who spoke on grounds of anonymity, said that the commercial motorcyclist (Okada) had dropped his passenger while trying to move his motorcycle was suddenly accosted by the mad man who hit him on the head with a log of wood which led to his death.

Reacting to the ugly incident, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) Kpirikpiri Division, SP Chris Anyanwu, who confirmed the incident, advised members of Okada Union to still nose for background information even as the police was still on top of the situation in order to do justice to the matter.

In an interview, the State Chairman, Motorcycle Transport Union Ebonyi State Chapter, Comrade Paulinus Atam, frowned at the tragic incident adding that the Union has never recorded such case since his emergence as the chairman.

Atam called on the government to fish out all mad men in the Abakaliki metropolis in order to forestall such occurrence in the future.

He consoled the bereaved family and the entire members of the union adding that the union would not take laws into their hands but would allow security agents to fish out the mad man.

The State Commissioner for Internal Security and Border Peace, Chief Stanley Okoro Emegha, stated that the matter has been reported to the police and assured that the culprit would be brought to book.

The Commissioner also debunked the speculation that members of the Neighbourhood Security Watch attacked the mad man, adding that the security outfit had been working for the safety of the people in the state.

A nephew to the deceased, Mr Opoke Innocent, who identified his late uncle as a married man with six children, called on the state government to come to the aid of the family members of the deceased as his demise has created a very big vacuum which needed the intervention of both the state government and the Okada Union for the survival of the bereaved family.

The corpse of the victim has been deposited at the FETHA 1 mortuary, Abakaliki while the wounded mad man was taken to the police clinic for medical attention. (Text, excluding headline, courtesy Saturday Independent)

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