It is difficult to believe a multiple murder once took place at the dumpsite but the indigenes swore that was the exact spot where the four students of the University of Port Harcourt (Uniport) were stripped naked, beaten with logs of wood, machetes and other dangerous weapons before being set ablaze.
The murderous crowd that gathered around the four boys on October 5, last year, as they begged for their lives had demanded their blood and got it. They were allegedly supervised by a group of policemen who ensured mob justice was carried out. But on August 11, almost a year after that ugly scene played out at the dumpsite, all that remained of the murder site were heaps of refuse and tall grasses.
“Yes, this is the spot where the boys were killed; even then it was a refuse dump but all these grasses were not there then, it grew this year. Not many people like to come here again because there are talks that the spirits of the boys are haunting people who came there. In the night, nobody will stay around here,” Muhammed Rasheed, a commercial motorcycle operator, said.
A man with mental illness soon appeared and as if daring the spirit of what is now known as the “Aluu 4”, went straight to the spot where the victims were burnt and began to urinate. Few passersby noticed him and even fewer bothered to look at him the second time. After he was done, he began to scavenge on the dumpsite and soon disappeared into the adjourning forest.
For almost a year, the people of Omuokiri Aluu, one of the nine villages that make up the Aluu clan, have had to live with their inglorious past following the brutal killing of Tekena Elkanah (20), Chiadaka Odinga (20), Ugunna Obuzor (18) and Llyod Toku (19) on October 5, 2012. The four Uniport students had gone to claim a debt in community but were falsely accused of being robbers and in an instance of mad rage were murdered.
The reprisal attack from the students saw destruction of gigantic proportion visited upon the community. According to some indigenes, over 100 cars were burnt and several houses destroyed. For several days, the community was deserted as the police and students visited their anger on both the guilty and the innocent. Fear and chaos reigned in the community.
A year after, the fear seemed to have assumed a frightening dimension. From Choba junction, any visitor will need the services of Hausa commercial motorcycle operators to get to the community. Immediately one enters the community, an unprecedented silence seemed to reign.
Men and women walked briskly to wherever was their destination and the usual excitement that characterised a cosmopolitan town like Aluu was absent.
But Omuokiri Aluu is not a village as outsiders are wont to believe. A single tarred road ran across the nine communities from Choba. By Nigerian standards, it was a well constructed road; one that should bring prosperity to the town but this was not to be as the town depended sorely on the generosity of the university. Most of the residents also work at the university while others content themselves selling everyday products in shops built on both sides of the road.
But like the silence, which has descended on the town, so also has the residents decided to keep sealed lips over the incident, which has put their town in the spotlight.
Standing on the spot of the murder brings an eerie feeling.
Just behind the dumpsite, was a road that led to a street where beautiful houses were built as hostels for university students.
The indigenes did not appreciate any enquiry about the incident and they immediately gave a ‘dirty’ look and walked away. Others looked at the questioner and put on a horrified look as if they had seen an apparition and walked away. Some simply mumbled about the detention of the community leader and also walked away.
“This town is still very tough, not many people will talk to you because everybody is bitter and we don’t know who is a robber and who is innocent, please be careful as you ask questions,” a man, who operates a food joint and identified as Michael, warned.
Some prominent indigenes, such as writer Elechi Amadi have said those who killed the boys were the strangers who live in a part of Aluu.
Michael corroborated this theory.
“Omuokiri indigenes are in the minority here, from Coca-Cola bus stop all the way down to the murder area is inhabited by strangers, students and other people. You cannot find an indigene living there and it’s unfortunate the whole community is being labeled killers,” he said.
There seemed to be some truth in this as a section of the town appeared to be inhabited by “strangers” who bought land from the indigenes. This group includes the Igbo, Hausa, Akwa Ibomites and other Rivers tribes. The best houses can be found in this area and it seemed to be the exact opposite of the area inhabited by the indigenes.
With increased population came crime. According to many of the residents, the presence of the students, the activities of cultists and the recent resettlement of former militants in the area have contributed to the porous security in the town.
The Nation learnt that when the militants came, they refused to live in their apportioned houses, engaged in extortion and harassment of residents.
The police were hard pressed. The division responsible for the town is 15 kilometers away in Isiokpo, though there is a division three kilometers away. Recently, a police post was established in the town but residents lament “the police are so incompetent few people know of their existence.”
“Robbery is rife here; there is almost no house where the robbers have not operated. They climb through the roof and into your shop to steal all your goods. One man from Akwa- Ibiom died recently of heart attack when his store was burgled, the robbery is too much,” Michael said.
“The time they robbed my shop they passed through the roof and carted away everything here. I just lost my husband so you know how difficult it was for me, we are all tired of the robbers,” Mrs. Sunny Amaehule, an indigene said.
That was the situation in the town when the four Uniport students went on their ill-fated mission. Due to the tension which had built up in the town, the mob believed it had found the ringleaders of those who terrorised the community. According to one of the elders, the police were already tired of the robberies and terrorism and that influenced their behaviour at the scene of the murder.
The town is paying dearly for it. Aside the despicable image created in the international community, business has been affected. The community head, Hassan Walema has been in police detention since the incident and the town is ruled with fear.
“We have lost a lot; we do not find it funny that people think we are killers. What happened was a result of the tension created by the insecurity in the town, we want the world to know Aluu people are peace loving people,” said an elder who craved anonymity.
According to investigations, real estate industry has suffered tremendously. In the town, most of the houses for rent are uninhabited as the students left the community in droves afraid of reprisal attacks from the indigenes. It was also learnt that the area inhabited by the “strangers” has seen the most drop in business.
The Nation counted 22 houses which have been up for let but seen no customers. “The houses here used to be more expensive than the natives but now it’s cheaper and nobody would even rent it. A 3-bedroom flat here is now N50, 000 per year but all of them are still empty,” a student of Uniport, who identified herself as Janet, said.
But one cannot miss the large number of churches in Omuokiri Aluu. When The Nation visited the Salem Foundation Faith Church, the Rev. Cyrus George Godson was preaching. He spoke of the end of times; of the rapture and the fate of the unbelievers.
Across the street, 300 metres away at the Living Faith Church aka Winners Chapel, the pastor, Attat John Bishop, prayed for Aluu and called on God to bring peace upon the community.
“After the incident, the churches here came together for prayers on behalf of the community. I have only been here four months but I can say this town has been peaceful, it’s like nothing has happened. Business is going on and God has taken control,” Bishop said.
The prayers of the churches have done little to allay the fears in Omuokiri Aluu.
“The fear of robbers and militants rank high and nobody is advised to visit the community after dark,” Michael revealed.
But despite their challenges, the indigenes try to enjoy whatever is left of their battered community life. On Sunday morning, the town went to church and in the afternoon the men returned to their bars to drink accompanied by laughter and loud gospel music. And as soon as the sun set, they retreated into the fortress of their homes bolting their doors. But the next day the circle returns, as vicious as the unchanging image of Aluu as the town of killers.
An elder, Fim Sampson, said the king never ordered the killing.
He said: “As a native of Omuokiri, I can tell you that the chief never gave the order for anybody to be killed. The police picked him up because he is the head and he will be freed after the investigation.
“I am happy the police have made arrests and I recommend those found guilty should be prosecuted. It’s unfortunate it happened here; we wish the parents of the children to know this community played no part in the death of their children. That day was a week day, our people have gone to work. Coca-cola bus stop is our boundary with the strangers. That area used to be a large farmland now occupied by strangers. How could four young men be killed by a community and expect to have peace? In Aluu, we have professionals, lecturers, professors, military men who live here; we are enlightened people and we would never have killed anybody neither did our chief order any killing. We want the world to know Aluu people are not killers, we are saddened by that incident and we commiserate with the families of the students. But we didn’t do it.”
