Eyewitnesses told Pointblanknews.com that hardly had Ogbonna left the area after disposing his waste when another official of the agency identified as Biggy, ordered his assistant, Mr. Okeugo Ugonna, to arrest him for disposing the refuse beside the overflowing receptacle.
Moved by the order, Ugonna pounced on the victim and gave him blows which led to his fall. Ugonna was said to have attempted to escape when he saw the 17 year old boy lying motionless, but was held by a group of youths in the area.
The boy was taken to a hospital along Azikiwe road, but was confirmed dead on arrival.
According to the eyewitnesses; “The boy came to dispose refuse, but dropped it beside the receptacle since it was already full. Other people who came to dispose their waste did same thing.The ASEPA man in charge of that bucket called Biggy ordered one of his boys to run after the boy and arrest him for disposing waste beside the receptacle.
“The boy wasn’t running because he never knew they were after him. Suddenly, we saw him dragging the boy along. The next thing we saw was a heavy blow that landed the boy on the tarred road. He fell flat without moving.
“On seeing that the boy may have died, he tried to escape but some boys caught him and handed him over to Aba Central Police Station. Suddenly, Biggy ran away when he saw what his boy did.
“How can serious a waste management agency put only one receptacle along a busy area? How can a serious waste management agency be left in the hands of touts? I How can Governor Okezie Ikpeazu leave ASEPA in the hands of incompetent people? The receptacle is always filled up and they don’t evacuate it as expected, it takes them more than a week to dispose the waste. Today, they’ve killed an innocent young boy just because he disposed of waste where others did.They molest and beat up residents on daily basis because of the same issue. There have been too many complaints about ASEPA using touts to beat up people but the government doesn’t want to listen.
“This same man, Biggy who ordered his boy to chase after the boy which led to his death was among those arrested about two years or a year ago for collecting money from destitute who sleep at that uncompleted building at Azikiwe Road that collapsed and killed five or four persons then. How he managed to escape that one and is currently working for ASEPA is a shock to many people who know him.”
Contacted, the Deputy General Manager, ASEPA, Aba Zone, Mr. Rowland Nwakamma, said he is not aware of such incident and promised to contact his staff in the area to get more details.
“I have not heard such a report. But we did not send anybody to beat up residents. If that had been our operational style, we would have killed many people. I did not send anybody to beat or kill people. I wonder also if the person that you said killed the 17 year old boy is my staff because my staff closed earlier by 4 pm yesterday because of the IPOB sit-at-home.
“I have not received such a report but now that you have given me this information, I will get in touch with my staff to know what happened.”
Police Public Relations Officer, Abia State Command, SP Geoffrey Ogbonna, wasn’t available for comments as at press time. However, a senior police officer at the Aba Central Police Station, confirmed that Ugonna has been arrested while the Police has launched a manhunt for his accomplice.
