A 25-year-old lady, Damietta Green, has passed on after she was hit by a bullet suspected to have been fired by a soldier in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
It was gathered that the unfortunate incident happened on Tuesday, September 6, along Harbour Road area of Port Harcourt. The Nation reports that soldiers who are posted on guard duty at the Nigeria Correctional Centre (Prison) facility, usually mount roadblocks around the area to extœrt money from transporters of illegal refined petroleum product (kpofire). Various sources told The Nation that the madness was triggered when a Toyota Camry car suspected to be conveying the illicit product refused to stop.
The soldier pursued the car and jumped on the bonnet. When the car refused to stop, he started shooting indiscriminately. “There were many vehicles trapped in the gridlock caused by the checkpoint and the victim was in one of those vehicles, a Lexus 330 salon car,” a source said. It was learnt that the errant driver of the Toyota Camry escaped the scene unhurt, but the vehicle was towed to the nearby Central Police Station.
Other passengers in the car told The Nation at UPTH that they were going home from a sales meeting when the driver of the Lexus car offered them a ride. “We know him (driver) in Town (a suburb of the city) and he offered us a ride home. We were at the checkpoint when the shooting started,” one of the victim’s friends said. Emmanuel Oluwaseun, who offered the lady the ride, confirmed the story. He said the bullets went through the back passenger door and lodged into the back of the victim, who sat at the back of the car with another passenger.
“In the confusion, she was shouting that she had been shot, but we couldn’t do anything because the soldier was just shooting. When the chaos eased, we rushed her to the Central Police Station. “The medical personnel said the matter was beyond them. They referred us to BMH (Braithwaite Memorial Hospital) where she was given some treatment and referred to UPTH where she died.” he said.
