Family of businessman murdered by soldier demands justice

Emmanuel Ekpo, Uyo

The family of slain businessman, Enobong Jimmy, who offered an army officer a lift from Port Harcourt to Akwa Ibom State, has petitioned the Federal and state governments to ensure that justice is done in the case.

Jimmy, an indigene of Obio Akai in Mkpat Enin Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, was brutally murdered on Sunday by a soldier, one Stephen I, on his way from Eleme, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, to see his family in Akwa Ibom.

The soldier was said to have inflicted several dagger injuries on his victim’s chest and made away with his vehicle without shooting him.

It was gathered that he dumped his corpse by the roadside and escaped with his vehicle to Ukanafun LGA, where he was tracked and arrested by the operatives of the Ikot Abasi division.

He was until his death an employee of the Eco Clearing & Forwarding Company, Port Harcourt and left behind a wife and two young daughters, aged eight and one, respectively.

Brother to the deceased, Mr Idorenyin Ikpongeyen, who spoke on behalf of the family in an interview with journalists on Wednesday asked the FG and the military to follow up the case to a logical conclusion to serve as a deterrent to others.

Specifically, he called on Nigerians to join voices with the bereaved family to ensure that such act of brutal murder of one who aided somebody is not swept under the carpet.

He lamented that the deceased who was on his way to visit his family members in Mkpat Enin Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, left behind young family, as his last child just turned a year.

He said: “It is very painful that we had to lose our brother to the hands of an ungodly Nigerian military personnel, all because he wanted to steal or reap from where he did not sow.

“I beg the Federal government, the Nigerian Army and the general public to help fight this fight for us, I beg the Nigeria government to bring justice to the one who murdered my brother, leaving his two kids and a wife behind.”