Gunmen
attacked the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) lodge along Udo Ekong
Ekwere street, off Information Drive in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State and rap3d
corps members.
According to Punch, the gunmen who invaded the
Corpers’ lodge on tricycles around 1:am on Wednesday, July 6, also
carted away valuables including laptops, cell phones and cash.
Narrating
th
e incident, one of the corps members, who identified himself as Emeka
Emmanuel said, “They arrived on a tricycle, popularly called Keke and
immediately started operation. They beamed high-intensity torchlight
everywhere and pounced on every door with heavy iron and threatened to
sh00t us if we fail to cooperate.”
A female Corps member, who
also spoke on condition of anonymity, said her phones, laptop, cash were
forcefully taken away from her after the hoodlums gained entrance into
her room from the back door.
“You know at that period of the
night, most of us females, we used to sleep naked and the suddenness of
the attack caught us unprepared. They beamed the torch through the
window and threatened to shoot if the door is not quickly opened.” she
explained.
“I have never heard of this anywhere in Nigeria, even
in the North, where insecurity is at the highest peak, that Corpers
could be deliberately targetted, rap3d, and robbed by criminals at
gunpoint. Is it because we are not from Akwa Ibom that no one could hear
our shouts and come to save us?”another female colleague, lamented.
Mr.
Nsikak Ibanga, a night guard at the State Secretariat of the Nigeria
Union of Journalists which is located opposite the corpers lodge said,
“I raised alarm by hitting the supporting pillars holding the
reconstructed NUJ auditorium. The sound reverberated across the whole
area but no response”.
Another neighbour, Bassey Offiong, said,
“When I heard the attack and the outcry of the Corpers, I quickly
reached out to the Police at Ikot Akpanabia Command, which is very close
here, but they arrived a little late after the criminals had finished
and left with their tricycle”.
The Youth Leader of the area,
Comrade Godwin Okpo, blamed the inability of the youths to come out on
noise of generators running into late night in most homes.
Source: Lindaikeji
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