Delta Govt Security Officials Kill Woman, Shoot Another

Officials of the Delta State-owned joint security outfit, Operation Delta Hawk, have shot dead a woman, barely three weeks after its inauguration by the state governor, Ifeanyi Okowa.

The deceased, identified as Amaka Ohanaja, is said to be a petty trader who was attending to her business on Wednesday, along the New General Hospital Road, Asaba.

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This was when a stray bullet from the Operation Delta Hawk officials hit her and she died on the spot.

According to eyewitness accounts, the operatives of the state security outfit were chasing occupants of a tinted Lexus car who refused to stop at a checkpoint and in a bid to arrest the escaping occupants of the car, a gunshot was fired at the vehicle.

A stray bullet hit the deceased and in the process another bullet which penetrated a car hit the driver, identified as Joshua Ona.

SaharaReporters gathered that the 30-year-old car driver is currently battling to survive at a hospital in Asaba while the Lexus car in question had been impounded at the headquarters of Operation Delta Hawk (OPDH), Asaba.

When contacted on the issue, the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Onome Onovwakpoyeya, confirmed the incident, noting that the occupants of the tinted Lexus car refused to stop for the vehicle to be searched. The police spokesperson said the driver rather zoomed off in a suspicious manner.

According to the police spokesperson, after a while, the attention of the police was drawn to a stray bullet hitting a woman identified as Amaka Ohanaja, who traded along the road in the area and died before she could get any medical help.

While regretting and condemning the incident, Onovwakpoyeya assured the family of the deceased and members of the public of justice.

She added that the police, however, had no hand in what happened.

She noted that a full-scale investigation would commence and whoever was found culpable would be brought to justice.