Many people in Uromi are still skeptical about what would befall them as life begins to crawl back to the town. This was evident on Wednesday which was the market day and the ever busy Mission Road where the biggest market in town is located was devoid of the heavy vehicular and human traffic associated with it even though the market was opened for business.
Many young people have continued to express their frustrations with what the police are doing as a result of last Thursday’s incident as they have allegedly turned it into an extortion spree.
They alleged that people were being picked at random and made to cough out huge sums of money or threatened to be taken to Abuja as an active participant in the incident. It was gathered that the police were collecting nothing less than N300,000 from those who fall into their trap and there is story of a young man who just came in from abroad and was picked by the police, he was said to have transferred N1 million through a POS before he was left to go as he was threatened that he would be moved to Abuja.
A young man told this reporter in pidgin english in a restaurant “make dem do come dey go because no be wetin den send dem, naim dem dey do now (They should leave us now because what they are now doing is not what they were sent to do)”
Another resident, Prince Eugene Olumese said “This development is affecting everybody here, now police are arresting everybody, young boys do not want to stay up to three in a place yet there are reason why people should stay but such gatherings no longer happen in Uromi because of the fear that police will just come and arrest anybody so as we speak, both the innocent and guilty are being arrested by the police. We are now at the mercy of the police because the local vigilante that has been helping has been suspended yet criminal Fulani herdsmen are still in our forests”
However, the police authorities advised those affected to show evidence so that necessary action would be taken and also promised to do their discreet investigation on the allegation to know if it is true or not.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the Edo State Police Command, Moses Yamu when contacted said “It is not just enough to allege that police are extorting, they must have done it to one or two people, these people should let us know or show proof then we can investigate. I may not be able to tell you that it is not true but I cannot also say it is a fact since there is no evidence. What I promise we will do, I will make some enquiries and also put an eye on the ground there.”
On that of someone paying one million naira, Yamu said “That one is on social media and I have chatted with the person who posted it to provide me with details, but till now as we speak, he has not.”.
There is however a reduction of security personnel on the roads.
Indication that the people are still afraid of coming out fully showed itself when Vanguard visited the area where the incident happened by Goodwill Junction along Old Ilushi Road.
The burnt truck with its loaded palm kernel shells in which the victims were travelling with their guns hidden under the shells was still at the spot while a scavenger was seen trying to cut off metal from the truck.
All the shops, churches and residential buildings in the area were all locked as the people still fear to come out because they say a reprisal is possible or arrest by the police.
Even most commercial motorcycle riders were avoiding going to the area, only one agreed after this reporter identified himself as a journalist.
Banks open for business
Contrary to speculations that banks may not open fully for operations, all the commercial banks were opened to customers and they were full to capacity, Wednesday being the first working day after the Ramadan holiday.
Most of the banks along Mission Road where virtually all of them are situated; UBA, Access Bank, Ecobank and others were full of customers.
The Uromi market which is along the same Mission Road was not as it used to be. Wednesday being the traditional market day, the road is usually a beehive of trading activities that result in gridlock but Wednesday was the same “You can see that even today that is our market day, vehicles, okada and people are moving freely, people are still not free to come out. On a market day, every movement here is at snail speed because of the population you will see. I have opened for business but it is obvious I will close early.” An Igbo trader told vanguard.
The people insist that the victims were not hunters or they were using that to disguise as they wondered what they were doing with the undisclosed sum of money in new notes found with them just as they also argue that Uromi has being under the siege of kidnappers
Olumese said “You can imagine that when people are arrested in the act of kidnapping and taken to the appropriate authority mostly the police and in a few days to months, you see the same people walking freely, your life is at risk especially those who are to keep watch over the town which we call vigilantes because these people will come after them so I think these are the reasons why they took the law into their hands which is not appropriate. The extra-judicial killing was not right though. We are not happy about it but there was a situation that was not remedied that was why that thing happened.
“There are some of our young people who are entrepreneurs, they can’t build houses where there are warehouses, they build in fresh lands which are mostly bushes and these people can no longer go to their houses, prices of goods keep skyrocketing because the food we can produce are no longer available because our farmers can no longer go to their farms. Herdsmen will go to farms to harvest food crops for their cattle to feed on, all these are unanswered questions.”
