Mr and Mrs Chijioke Jona’s world
crashed last Thursday when unknown gunmen murdered their only son at
Gada Street in Ogbunabali community, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Their son, Alex, who was about 20 years old was among eight persons reportedly killed at different locations in Port Harcourt by suspected cultists.
“My son was a good boy. He was loved by everybody. My son cannot be a
cultist,” the mother insisted as she spoke to the VM. She sobbed as
she continued: ” Go to Ogbunabali market, women will
tell you about my son. He is not a cultist”. When asked if he was a
member of any of the political parties, the woman said her son had no
time for politics. “No, he was not a member of any political party. He
did not have time to even go for his permanent voter’s card, PVC, “ the boy’s mum lamented
The father, Mr Chijioke Jona also told Vanguard newspaper
”He was my first son. I had two boys and two girls. The two boys are
now dead. One died some years back while this one died on Thursday.
Now I have only two girls, “ he said as he shook his head, paused and
continued.
“He came back from work between 6pm and 6.30pm. He saw me
sitting outside. He said I should have put on the generator and be
inside the house. I told him I wanted us to manage the available fuel.
Well, he later went to put on the generator. “When his friend visited,
they decided to go and eat noodles at a nearby place where they sell
cooked noodles with fried egg.
He liked noodles, so he patronised
the place regularly. About 15 minutes after they left, I suddenly saw
people running helterskelter. Then I heard: ‘They shot him on the leg’.
Later some elderly men came to tell me not to worry, assuring me that he
was shot on the leg and had been rushed to the state-owned Braithwaite
Memorial Hospital, BMH. I was asking them, ‘who and what happened?’
Nobody told me anything. All they kept saying was ‘na leg dem shoot am,
wear your cloth. Just come’.
“Immediately I sensed that something
terrible must have happened. I quickly went inside to dress up, switched
off the generator and came out. Some of the elderly men immediately
drove me in a vehicle to BMH. It was at the Emergency Ward I saw the
lifeless body of my son. I screamed and those around held me again,
trying to calm me”.
” O! So my son is gone. My son, my son. Just like that; my son who was
with me barely 30 minutes before the incident”. But shaking off his
sorrow, he turned to the reporter and continued.
“As I heard, they said he had finished eating the plate of noodles he
ordered and was waiting for his friend who asked for a second plate
when the assailants came and started shooting at them. “He ran into a
nearby chemist shop after they fired the first bullet at him; the
killers followed him, shooting.
“My son was a talented young boy. He
finished his secondary school and was hoping to continue his education
but in the interim was repairing phones and laptops at Garrison area of
Port Harcourt. My son was never a cultist,” he said.
A community source who spoke under
anonymity said youths in the area took note of the killers when they
drove round in a taxi. According to the source, the assailants allegedly had two informants on ground who kept tab on their target.
“ Their target greeted the late Alex and his friend before they entered
the noodles spot. What I heard was that he showed Alex his phone and
said it had some problems. So they agreed that he would work on it
later. Those monitoring probably thought Alex and his friend belonged to
the same rival cult group with the target they greeted. So they had to
go for them when they missed their target, thinking the two were members
of the target’s group”.