A military officer attached to Operation IJEOMA in Abakaliki Ebonyi State capital has sustained injuries following clash with some members of a taskforce team.
The confrontation caused tension at the Lot 2 of Ebonyi State international market on Wednesday as the market ticket taskforce members and a soldier inflicted various degrees of injuries on themselves.
The Point gathered that trouble started when the taskforce members besieged the soldier whose name was given as Nwuzor Elias and asked him to pay N5,000 as loading and offloading fee in the market which he refused, leading to exchange of words between them.
“Ticket people just attacked me at International Market because I refused to give them 5,000 naira which they claimed it is for loading and offloading.
“I told them that I am not carrying anything and I am not coming to carry anything that I am only here to buy something and secondly I identified myself as a soldier to them.
“They said nothing concerned them with me being a soldier, that I should go to Port Harcourt and continue with my soldier work, that they are also Biafra soldiers
“Before I knew what was going on, they attacked me, injured me and I am presently at a hospital in Abakaliki
“Before going to the hospital, I went to the Barack and I reported my case and they wanted to arrest all of them but they ran away because they heard about their coming including their CSO”, the injured soldier narrated.
After the incident, a team of soldiers stormed the market in search of the taskforce members and arrested one of them while others took to their heels.
Effort to reach the state Chairman of Revenue Board, Christopher Omoisu for comments on the incident was not successful at the time of the report.