An anti-robbery squad has been deployed to Elingbu Community, in Obio/ Akpor local Government area, a suburb of Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, as after unknown gunmen numbering about five shot and killed Comrade Nna Adiele Uche, the President of Elingbu Youths Association, injuring about five occupants in his car on Sunday night.

Although the details of the incident were sketchy at press time,it was however learnt that the assailants may have trailed the youth leader and the occupants of his vehicle to Rumueyaya road, Eneka where they waylaid him with their Infinity SUV and opened fire on him and injured rest occupants before they sped off.

The Rivers Police Command image maker, Rita Innoma-Abbey,a Superintendent of Police, confirmed the incident when she was contacted. She said the police are on the trail of the assailants.

In a separate development, the River state Governor,Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has attributed robbery attacks to the infiltration of criminals from Abia state who rob and escape to boundary communities in the state.

Amaechi who was giving an appraisal of the security situation in the state over the weekend said he had spoken to his Abia state counterpart on the issue and pleaded with him to allow security agents from Rivers State to raid the criminal hideouts in the boundary communities between Rivers and Abia.

He said “We have the capability of stopping them but our security agents cannot carry out operation in those hideouts because it’s not our jurisdiction.

As a first step,he vowed that because of the security reports that have revealed some criminals who disguise as that hawkers on traffic jams on the Aba/Port Harcourt Expressway and other major roads in Port Harcourt usually come from Abia state,the state government has banned hawking on high ways.

—Okafor Ofiebor/     Port Harcourt