By Beverly Ehia, Abakaliki
Ebubeagu security outfit in Ebonyi state has allegedly attacked and injured many members of the Labour Party in the State.
The incident said was said to have happened at Okposi, Ohaozara local government area on Saturday.
Ebubeagu is a security outfit in the South-east that is backed by the Ebonyi State Government and other state governments in the region.
The Labour Party House of Assembly candidate for Ohaozara East Constituency, David Ogbonna alleged that the security personnel pursued the woman and she hit her head on a hard concrete surface.
He said the woman was rushed to hospital where she remained unconscious as doctors battled to save her life.
Mr. Ogbonna also alleged that the attackers were led by the Chairman of Ohaozara local government area, Consider Ajah, saying they shot at the party faithful and inflicted varying degrees of gunshot injuries on at least three of them.
Mr. Ogbonna said: “We scheduled a meeting with our supporters in the Okposi community, Mr. Nkemkanma Kama was supposed to be there. We were to receive defectors from PDP, APC, and other parties.
“On the road that led from the local government, we saw many cars parked on the road including a Mercedes Benz belonging to Consider, the local government Chairman.
“I told people that this is the chairman and asked if they have any program where we are going they said they don’t know.
“As we were going, they suddenly passed us with speed. When we got to Okposi we saw them barricading the entire road. We made a detour towards Onicha local government because we didn’t want our security to have any altercations with them.
“We stopped at a place and made calls and then decided to go back and asked them why they are barricading the road leading to where we are having our program.
“When we got there, we didn’t see them. We proceeded to the venue. When we got there, we saw people on the floor. They shot directly at people. Then a woman ran into an uproar they pursued her to a three storey building and pushed her from there and she fell.
“She was rushed to the hospital and the report we are getting is that she is unconscious. We saw people with bullet wound injuries. We have taken them to hospital”, he said.
Ogbonna further in a statement on Sunday, narrated how the supposed Ebubeagu personnel invaded the venue and destroyed many things, saying the whereabout of some supporters is still unknown.
Contacted, the Chairman of the local government, Mr. Consider Ajah denied leading an attack on the Labour Party supporters.
He, however, admitted that Ebubeagu officials went to the area to stop the people gathered there from blocking the road, which is a federal highway.
Mr. Ajah further noted that the organizers did not get approval from the local government before holding the rally.
He said: “We did not attack anybody. They were blocking the road which is a federal highway and we had to intervene to prevent them from disrupting people’s movement.
” We have a law that before you hold any form of gathering you must get approval from the local government for security purposes. But they did not do that. We have no interest in what any other party is doing but they should do the right thing at all times”, he said.
In a conflicting reaction, the Sector Commander of Ebubeagu, Nnanna Friday vehemently denied that Ebubeagu was in the area.
“We did not attack anybody. They should stop mentioning Ebubeagu every time they have problems among themselves. They may have been attacked by their fellow members who they may have had a disagreement with and they now turn around and blame it on Ebubeagu.
“They did the same thing recently in Izzi and we later discovered that they were attacked by their members”, he said.
Also contacted, the Police spokesperson in the State, Chris Anyanwu said he was not aware of the incident.
He promised to make an inquiry and get back to our reporter later. He was yet to do so at the time of this report.