Video: CCTV Camera Suggests Stray Bullet From Rivers Police Killed Pedestrian
By Concise News correspondent
Footage from a CCTV camera in Port Harcourt has shown how a pedestrian, Ese Akpan, was allegedly shot dead by stray bullet shot by one of the policemen escorting a bullion van on Old Aba road on Tuesday.
The CCTV footage, obtained by Punch, showed that Ese, a painter, was shot at 1:45pm on Tuesday while on his way to collect money owed him by a construction company he worked for.
In the video footage, Ese can be seen suddenly lurching forward and falling to the ground while a women standing next to him by the roadside ran away out of fear.
According to Punch, some sympathizers, including workers of First Rivers Hospital Limited, a private facility in front of which the incident occurred, rushed to help the victim, two minutes after he was hit by the stray bullet.
An unidentified man came to check on Ese at the hospital few minutes after he was taken to the hospital for treatment, according to an official of the hospital who pleaded anonymity with Punch.
“The man said the bullion escort team was coming from an eatery at Rumukoro where the operatives had gone to pick some money. He said they were heading towards a bank in the area and he was driving behind the van when they fired the shot. He said they usually did that when they approached where they were taking money to. Unfortunately, the man was hit by the bullet. He told us to save his life,” the anonymous hospital source told Punch.
Ese’s wife said attempt to report the case to the police had her chased out of the police station and treated like a criminal at the government’s office.
