Rivers People condemn killings on PH-Aba Expressway
… Described Amb. Ajuru's killing as one too many
Port Harcourt-Aba expressway has become a death trap to not only motorists and traders traveling on daily basis to the famous Ariaria market for business but regrettably, for the bulk of Rivers indigenes who use same route to reach out to other parts of the country.
If not for the spill-over effect of the joint military security notably the Swift Operation Squad (SOS) and Joint Task Force (JTF) from the niegbouring Rivers, the Port Harcourt-Aba Expressway would have completely collapsed by the daily and hourly activities of the men of the underworld who have not only dispossessed road users of their personal effects but also sent many innocent souls to their untimely graves.
The number of such deaths and killings on Port Harcourt Aba Expressway especially of Rivers indigenes and residents is legion no thanks to the non-challant attitude of the Abia State government.
But if all have been keeping quiet over the state of insecurity on Port Harcourt-Aba Expressway which has left the users at the mercy of armed robbers and hired assassins, that of Sunday, December 20, 2009, the shooting and killing of an illustrious son of Rivers State, one-time PDP governorship aspirant in Rivers and the immediate past Nigerian Ambassador to Garbon, Chief Ignatius Ajuru, has been described as one too many.
The amiable and unassuming Ambassador was reportedly traveling back to Port Harcourt that fateful Sunday evening when he was accosted on the way, a few kilometers to the Imo Gate, the boundary between Abia and Rivers by armed robbers and, suspected hired assassins, shooting him dead on the spot.
Before this ugly and deafening news of Chief Ajuru's killing, a countless number of other Rivers indigenes had equally suffered same fate on same route as though pre-meditated.
It would be recalled that it was on same route, Professor Iko and son as well as Prof.(Mrs) Roseline Konya were kidnapped recently and a lot more.
Unofficial reports also have it that the Rivers State government worried over his spate of criminal activities and systematic killing of her illustrious sons and daughters has made several attempts on how to heighten security on the road with its Abia State counterpart but to no avail.
Consequently, the Rivers people are calling on their indigenes to reduce the rate of jumping to Aba to make purchases, arguing that such services can also be conveniently obtained in Port Harcourt.
Alternatively, the Aba traders should be carrying their waves to Port Harcourt, they suggested.
Meanwhile, the Rivers State government has described the gruesome murder of one of its own, Chief (Amb.) Ignatius Ajuru as unfortunate and unacceptable to the Rivers people. It urged the Abia State government and the police to do everything possible to unravel the killers of this prominent politician and Isiokpo chief.
