Ifeanyi Arunsi

2020

Ebem Ohafia, Abia State.

Ifeanyi Arunsi was 18 years old when a drunk policeman shot him in the heat of an argument. 

A group of police officers who were neither on duty nor on a COVID-19 preventive assignment, went out in a car belonging to one of them to a pub. After drinking, they headed home. On their way, due to the toll of drunkenness, their car hit a truck off-loading goods.  

Ifeanyi, who was described as a gentle soul, had been off-loading goods alongside his co-workers when the car the police officers were in brushed the parked truck. 

What had started as a simple argument between the businessmen and the police officers quickly spiralled into heated argument. Angered by this, one of the police officers walked back to their car, and returned with a rifle. Being under the influence, the officer started shooting sporadically until a bullet hit Ifeanyi on the buttocks. 

Ifeanyi would later die at the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia where he had been receiving medical attention for the gunshot wound. 

At the time of Ifeanyi’s death, Abia state had yet to record any COVID-19 infection case. However, he was the fifth person to have been reported killed by the police since the beginning of the lockdown. He was killed in the 3rd week of lockdown.