Waste management official kills teenager over refuse disposal in Abia

A waste management official allegedly working for Abia State Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA), Mr Okeugo Ugonna, has allegedly killed a 17-year-old boy identified as Master Daniel Ogbonna, near a receptacle, along Asa road, Aba.

It was gathered that Ogbonna was allegedly killed by the suspect for disposing his refuse behind a filled up receptacle.

An eyewitness said Ogbonna came to dispose refuse at about 5:30 pm on Sunday, but the receptacle was filled.

He was said to have left the area after disposing his waste outside the filled receptacle.

However, another official identified as Biggy was alleged to have asked the suspect to arrest the victim for disposing the refuse outside the receptacle. But the arrest ended in death.

“The ASEPA man in charge of that bucket called Biggy ordered one of his boys to run after the boy who disposed his waste and left. The boy wasn’t running because he never knew they were after him. Suddenly I saw him dragging the boy along. The next thing I saw was a heavy blow that landed the boy on the tarred floor. He fell flat without moving.

“On seeing that the boy may have died, he tried to escape but some boys caught him and handed him over to Aba Central Police Station. Suddenly, Biggy ran away when he saw what his boy did. How can a serious waste management agency, put only one receptacle? It’s always filled up and they don’t evacuate it as expected. Today, they’ve killed an innocent young boy just because he disposed of waste where others did,” the source said.

A police source at the Aba Central Police Station said that Ugonna has been arrested while a search for his accomplice has commenced.

Contacted, the Deputy General Manager, ASEPA, Aba Zone, Mr. Rowland Nwakamma, said he is not aware of such incident and promised to put a call to his staff in the area to get more details.

“I have not heard such a report. But we did not send anybody to beat up residents. If that had been our operational style, we would have killed many people. I did not send anybody to beat or kill people.

“I wonder also if the person that you said killed the 17-year-old boy is my staff because my staff closed earlier by 4 pm yesterday because of the IPOB sit-at-home. I have not received such a report but now that you have given me this information, I will get in touch with my staff to know what happened,” he said.

Courtesy (excluding headline) Vanguard