Omagwa Community Protest Alleged DSS, Police Harassment, Block Road with Corpse

The people of Omagwa Community in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State blocked the Port Harcourt-Owerri Road with the corpse of one of their kinsmen who was allegedly shot and killed by a policeman.  

Omagwa Community is host to the Port Harcourt International Airport and is the transit community for travelers ingressing into Rivers State from Imo State or exiting Rivers State.

Eyewitnesses told Kristina Reports that trouble started when policemen from Omagwa Division of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) allegedly shot and killed a young man named Bright Chikuma Egbule at the early hours of Sunday, February 9, 2025.

The incident instantly triggered an uproar as the community rose in protest, firstly taking the corpse to the Police Station where it was reported that the Police opened fire on the protesters.

The community thereafter mobilised and blocked the Port Harcourt-Owerri Road, which is a federal road, with the corpse thereby, leading to complete blockade of access to commuters.

Source within the community also complained to Kristina Reports that Omagwa Community and her people had become victims of harassment from security agencies lately.

They stated that about a month ago, some operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS), allegedly on the orders of a certain man, came in the dead of the night, shot sporadically and whisked a young man away and locked him incommunicado for weeks without access to his family or lawyer.

Again, last week, the same DSS operatives allegedly returned in the night, harassed the family of one Felix Anonya, aka Muchacha, brutalised his wife and kids and forcefully took him away while he was naked.

They alleged that the DSS during the operation allegedly vandalized his house and took away with them important family documents, raising concerns that they were working for an interested person seeking to cow the entire community into submission.

“Today’s incident has brought to the fore the harassment Omagwa people and confirmed that we are suffering in the hands of security personnel who are supposed to protect us but have now turned to become our tormentors,” one of the indigenes said, though anonymously.

He noted that all the victims of these raids including the deceased are innocent people who do not have any criminal records.

The source appealed to the government, Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies to come to their aid and save them from bad officers and those with ulterior motives.

Efforts by Kristina Reports to reach the DSS and the Police proved abortive as at the time of this report.