Onitsha, Nigeria – September 9, 2025

Fear and fury gripped Onitsha on Tuesday after operatives of the Operation Clean and Healthy Anambra (OCHA) Brigade allegedly opened fire at the bustling Emeka Offor Plaza axis of the Main Market, killing four citizens, including a pregnant woman.

Eyewitnesses said the violence began when the task force attempted to disperse traders displaying wares on the roadside. In the ensuing scuffle, operatives reportedly fired live rounds, hitting innocent passersby.

“This is heartbreaking. People came to trade and return home, but ended up in the mortuary. Among the dead is a heavily pregnant woman,” a female trader told reporters amid tears.

The Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, later confirmed the incident, acknowledging three deaths while assuring that calm had been restored.

But the assurances have done little to quell anger. Across Anambra, the tragedy is being seen not as an isolated event but as part of a pattern of bloodshed linked to government security outfits under Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo.

A Troubling Record of Killings

Anambra residents and rights groups have repeatedly raised alarm over the reckless and violent conduct of Soludo’s security and enforcement agencies, which critics say are operating with near-total impunity.

A recent Jungle-Journalist.Com investigation (August 27, 2025) uncovered chilling evidence of extrajudicial killings and abuse by the governor’s pet security network, Operation Udo Ga-Achi (Agunechemba), launched in January 2025. The force, meant to combat violent crime, has increasingly been accused of killing innocent citizens in market raids, on highways, and even inside their homes.

Documented Incidents of Concern:

• March 17, 2025 – A woman was shot dead in Mgbaukwu market by an Udo Ga-Achi operative.
• March 18, 2025 – Another woman was killed in her own home in what was described as an “accidental discharge.”
• April 16, 2025 – In Nnewi, a young mother, Mrs. Chiamaka, was shot dead by an operative who later admitted he had no training, no ID, and no proper vetting.
• June 25, 2025 – A 12-year-old boy was gunned down at Ifejike Street, Onitsha, during indiscriminate shooting by operatives near Biafra Market.
• August 6, 2025 – Another boy traveling with his mother in Ogidi was shot and hospitalized after operatives fired into a crowd.

Rights monitors say these cases echo the dark days of the Bakassi Boys, the dreaded vigilante group unleashed by the state in the early 2000s, which began as folk heroes but quickly devolved into extrajudicial killers.

Citizens Question Soludo’s Legacy

While Governor Soludo insists that securing Anambra is his top priority, the mounting civilian death toll under state-linked forces now risks overshadowing his reforms. Civil society groups argue that the administration is repeating the same mistakes of past governments—arming untrained men and empowering them to act outside the law.

“Every week we are counting dead bodies. These killings are avoidable, yet no one is ever held accountable. How many more lives must be wasted before something changes?” asked Dr. Justin Nwankwo, a security analyst quoted in Jungle-Journalist.Com’s report.

As public outrage swells following Tuesday’s market killings, the Soludo government faces renewed calls to disband or overhaul its security architecture—before Anambra slides further into a cycle of state-sponsored bloodletting.