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Onitsha shooting: Pain and sorrow, empathy and compassion, as Nwosu visits victims
By Sunny Igboanugo
She writhed and riggled as she struggled to change her position. The pain was obvious in that effort. She tried to speak, but no words came out. She could only gesticulate, pointing to her mouth, which appeared to have been worked on. A kind of surgery must have been performed probably by some maxillo-facial surgeons from evidence.
Then, her minders rushed to her attention in attempt to interpret her action. They must done this a thousand times and more in the tons of similar cases they must have handled given their actions. In this case, they must have done so many other times. “She cannot speak for now,” the lead consultant in charge, intervened. His own pains were equally obvious, even with the mesh of professionalism covering his entire conduct.
This was the scene at the Trauma Centre of the Nnewi Teaching Hospital, one of the centres of excellence for medical cases in the South East. Date was Thursday, September 11, 2025. Helen Anoyochukwu Nwoye, was one of the victims of the mid-day shooting at the Emeka Offo Plaza, a bustling market mostly for telecommunication components and assessories, located at Bright Street, inside the popular Onitsha Main Market.
Two days earlier, on Tuesday September 9, men of the Operation Clean and Healthy Anambra, otherwise known as Ocha Brigade, had stormed the market where they unleashed mayhem, leaving in their gory escapades sorrow, tears and blood. At the end of the deadly operation, five people were reportedly mowed down in a hail of bullets. The eerie incident was said to have resulted from an altercations between the operatives and the traders over the display of their wares.
Nwoye, was among the “lucky” victims of the shooting, given that she still has her life with her, though her health was obviously badly affected. There was no way of ascertaing from her the details of her own account given the state of her condition except for what is already in the public domain, but it was clear that she might never be the same again from the impact of that deadly episode.
Beside her also lay Chionye Okwukwechi, a middle-aged man, another of the victims. Like Nwoye, he was also clearly in pain. Again, there was also no way of determining his own details, particularly what he was doing at the point when calamity struck and how he was able to cheat death, as he struggled to sleep, apparently to mitigate his own ordeal.
For John Chuma Nwosu, governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), who came calling, it was a day to be with the victims, physically, psychologically, spiritually and emotionally, sharing their pains and sorrow. Beyond the financial succour he advanced to the victims and other patients at the hospital, he made a solemn vow – this will never happen in a state under my care!
Consoling the families of the victims, he expressed confidence that their wards would recover fully to the glory of God, adding that as a staunch Catholic, he had absolute trust that with the intercession of Mother Mary they would get the healing which they had come to seek in the hospital.
“I can assure you that nothing will happen to them. You have already put your confidence in God. All of us that are here, we’re going to put you in our prayers. We say, ndo nu! Take heart, for all will be well. My name is John Chuma Nwosu. The meaning of Chuma is God Knows Everything. God knows we’re going to be here today,” Nwosu, who also doled out financial largesse to another victim – a spinal cord injury patient after praying for his recovery.
From every evidence, it was clear that Nwosu was so hit with the impact of what he saw in the hospital that it formed the core of his message throughout the day’s activities, which took him to the Abba Market in Dunukofia Local Government Area of the state and during his visit to Igwe Robert Eze (Okofia v1) of Ukpo in the same local government, where he strengthened his vow that his government would do things differently.
At the palace of the Anambra foremost monarch, where he apologised for coming late, he had explained the reason for doing so as occasioned by his decision to visit the hospital first to commiserate with the victims of the shooting, which he said was a clear evidence of the bad governance in the state.
“I’m a man known for keeping time and never be late to scheduled occasions. But I had to rush to see our people, who were shot at Bright Street, Onitsha two days ago. Please accept my apologies. I’ve heard your admonitions in your prayers, where you told us to emulate the records of Nnamdi Azikiwe and M.I. Okpara. I hereby promise that we’re not only going to do that, we’ll even attempt to do more.
“This is what are contained in our seven-point agenda captured as SHEEEMS – where S stands for Security, H stands for Health, first E stands for Education, second E stands for Economy, and third E stands for Environments, while M stands for Markets and S stands for Social Welfare. Igwe regarding our social welfare – you know that science tells us that once a man gets to 50 years, he should go and check himself for such conditions like prostrate problems or anything. But you’ll be surprised that in the entire Anambra, there is nowhere you have a cancer diognostic centre. None.
“That of UNTH has packed up. So, what happens is that people now resort to going to Lagos for diognosis. Either you go to the Duchess Hospital in Ikeja or Luth. But in Anambra State, in fact, the entire Eastern Region, there is no single cancer diagnostic centre.
“In that of Security, our governor has stayed for three years with Anambra suffering the worst form of insecurity for that period. In January this year, he went and brought people who cover their faces that nobody could identify or know where they came from. They cover their faces because they’re not from here. Igwe, I know you’re widely-travelled. I know there’s nowhere else in Nigeria that you see men carrying gun and covering their faces in the name of security.
“A visiting white man that sees that will be traumatised and will never come back. Even in Enugu State, you don’t have such a thing. But our strategy will be different. we’re going to use the conventional security, that is the police. We’re going to provide them with further enhanced training, particularly on how to engage with civilian community. we’re going to upgrade their salaries and allowances, pay them well in addition from what they get from the Federal Government.
“We’ll provide them with life-insurance benefits, so that they will throw everything in the job, knowing that if anything happens to them, their families would be provided for. These are the incentives they will need to work optimally. We will equip them with optimally also and provide them with functional equipment including brand new vehicles as opposed to the Tokumbo, which those the state government is providing now.
“Where in this world does a government buy used vehicles. How do you determine the cost of such vehicles. Government buys new vehicles not only for optimal functionality, but also accountability. You have to evaluate the value of those vehicles. When Peter Obi was in office, he was the one that gave Innocent Chukwuma, our son and brother the money to expand the INNOSON Motors factory by giving him one single order of N3billion and asking him to supply to security operatives, hospitals.
“That’s how the companies you hear their names in Asia and other parts of the world took off. An individual doesn’t have the money to invest in such large capital-intensive concerns. You must be supported by your government. Ogun State has today opened an international cargo airport. Our brothers in Lagos and other parts of Nigeria and the world must be supported with incentives. They must be supported with such government interventions as tax incentives – five or 10 years tax-free incentives for their businesses.
“Today, since our governor came in, our people have virtually left the state – scattered all over the country. Many of those who used to do business in Onitsha have all relocated to Asaba. All these could be traced to poor or absence of insecurity that has ravaged the state. But we’re going to do things differently when we come in.
“As I told you, my name in John Chukwuma Nwosu from Odida Nnewi. I’m an ex-seminarian. I was a student of All Hallows Seminary, Onitsha. I left seminary school in 1981 after being Assistant Secretary to Cardinal Francis Arinze when he was the Archbishop of Onitsha and later Secretary to the Catholic Women Organisation. From there I went to read Computer Science at IMT and later Economics at University of Lagos.
“I own the company known as Jetlinks Limited, an ICT company of over 31 years, with offices in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Enugu, Nnewi, Ghana and Liberia. With my experience in ICT, we’ll use Artificial Intelligence-powered CCTV cameras, installed at strategic centres including our borders, back it with a strong control centre at the state capital.
“We’ll have them in the exit location around Ihiala, Onitsha Head Bridge, down to Amansea, Uga and scattered around other major cities around Awka, Onitsha and Nnewi. Thereafter, we shall advice our people to register and get their National Identity Number – NIN – I was managing the NIN database of NIMC (National Identity Management Commission) until recently. Once that is done, if you commit any crime, once the camera captures your face your identity is known immediately.
“Igwe, what I’m saying is not political talks. It is already happening in Enugu State. Fashola achieved that in Lagos. Whoever lives in Lagos will tell you that you no longer hear shootings anyhow because people are being watched and the Operation Rapid Response is there. That is why Lagos is calm. But we’re going to even bring a stronger, more efficient and more effective model that is so airtight that nothing will escape.
“That is the way our economy must return. We must revitalise Anambra economy. If go to Asaba at the weekend, particularly Sunday night, what you see is like a carnival and like Dubai, because our governor, left security has deteriorated so much.” Igwe, this is our story. This is our promise. This is our mandate for the people.”
No doubt, to many ears, especially people from Anambra, Nwosu’s message is now like preaching to the converted. Last Sunday in Lagos, where he met with the creme of Anambra indigenes resident in the state, the question of insecurity took the centre of discussion.
Coincedentally, in another hall at the Colonades Hotel, Alfred Rewane Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, venue of the parley, House of Integrity Social Club, whose membership traverses not only was having their own gathering. It was the yearly New Yam Festival, otherwise known as Iri Ji. The implication of such a traditional ceremony being marked in Lagos, instead of the South East, adumbrated the sad picture of the Igbo story today.
In August 2024, the nation was seized with the sad news of how a group of gunmen abducted Patrick Agha Mba, Commissioner for Youth Development in Anambra State after killing his wife Chizoba. The Mbas were on their way to Abuja, the nation’s capital when they were attacked by the gunmen. Their mission was to attend the wedding of Adaora, daughter of Charles Chukwuma Soludo, Governor of Anambra State.
The implications of that development, both in the optics and the relevance are as obvious as they are compelling. If the first family of a state by virtue of the the governor could not be comfortable enough to hold the marriage rites of their daughter – the first daughter of the state in Anambra due to insecurity, who else would?
Indeed, many had in past cried out at what considered a taboo when cultural activities, such as burials, marriages, chieftaincy rites, iri ji, amongst others were shifted to safer grounds of Lagos, Abuja and other towns. The practice was ended when the governor of Peter Obi, unleashed its arsenal against the hoodlums behind the crime and chased them out of town for the state to be declared as the safest in the country. Today the phenomenon has returned with greater intensity, with the selfsame Soludo, showing no evidence of possessing the clue to end the orgy.
Instead of finding the solution, the governor and his government, have worsened the situation by his own model of unleashing his henchmen, whose modus operandi, includes turning the guns they are supposed to use in protecting the society on the same people they were charged to protect, of which the Onitsha massacre has now become a demonstrable example. Tragedy!
Igboanugo, Director, Media and Publicity, John Chuma Nwosu Governorship Campaign Council of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) on Tuesday, called out the Federal Government of attempting to destabilise the party following Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s defection, alleging pressure on Joash Ojo Amupitan, INEC Chairman, to interfere in its leadership.
Bolaji Abdullahi, spokesman of the party, who made the allegation in a statement, detailed how a March 28 letter by some Senior Advocates, purportedly representing an expelled member of the party, is being used to push INEC to invalidate party actions and alter its structure before the court rules.
Stressing that part of the grand plan to destabilise the only viable opposition party left in the country was to use the electoral commission to cause havoc, over a matter that was in court, the party promised to resist it using all constitutional means,
The full statement reads:
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has observed a coordinated attempt to pressure the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan (SAN), and destabilise the David Mark-led leadership of the party.
The decision of Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to join our party has understandably sent jitters through the ruling party. Since then, top officials within the Federal Government have renewed their onslaught against our party, in a bid to discourage other high-profile figures.
This conspiracy is centred on a legal dispute that is now being pushed beyond the courtroom. In a letter dated March 28, 2026, a team of Senior Advocates of Nigeria is asking INEC to enforce a curious and peculiar interpretation of a Court of Appeal ruling regarding what constitutes “status quo ante bellum.”
In the said letter, the writers even went ahead to threaten the INEC chairman with arrest if he does not grant their request within seven days. They want INEC to invalidate party meetings, remove recognised officials, and hand over the affairs of the party to a specific individual, even though the case itself has not been fully decided by the courts. Obviously, what the authors of this vexatious letter are attempting to do is to pressure INEC to take sides and grant them what no court in Nigeria has granted.
For the avoidance of doubt, Hon. Nafiu Bala Gombe, who is claiming to be aggrieved over the ADC leadership, was never the Chairman of the ADC. And, perhaps more significantly, Nafiu Gombe had earlier resigned his position alongside other members of the National Working Committee. He has also since been expelled from the party. Therefore, any attempt to recreate a “status quo” that upgrades his position to National Chairman of the ADC at any point in time is, at best, fictitious.
What we are witnessing is a convergence of legal pressure and political intent by a ruling party that is unsettled by the growing appeal of the ADC. But Nigerians can see what is happening.
No amount of pressure, no manufactured confusion, and no distortion of legal processes will stop what is already in motion. The ADC is growing. Nigerians are joining. A credible opposition is taking shape.
We call on INEC to remain guided by the Constitution, resist all forms of pressure, and uphold its duty as an impartial umpire.
This is bigger than the ADC. It is about whether Nigerians can freely choose a different path. And that must not be compromised.
In the early hours of Monday, January 26, 2026, Charles Chukwuma Soludo, stormed Onitsha Main Market, reputed to be the biggest enclave for trading and other commercial activities in West Africa, on what he called on-the-spot assessment.
It was a military-style display, reminiscent of the Muhammadu Buhari-Tunde Idiagbon, best-forgotten taskforce days, when soldiers, without warning swooped on markets, broke into their owner’s shops and practically sold available goods to the public at giveaway prices – many their cronies, in the guise of forcing their Essential Commodities policy.
In like manner there and then, the governor ordered the immediate closure of the market after accusing the traders of harbouring criminal intents and engaging in economic sabotage that costs the state a whopping N8billion in lost revenues. To boot, he even warned not only to close the market on a permanent basis, but if need be, even bulldoze it to the ground, should the traders remained recalcitrant in their decision.
Hear him: “Each Monday, we’ll come and inspect. If people are not in their respective shops, it will be shut down again. If you like I don’t mind shutting down this Main Market for the remainder of this year. If you don’t like it, go elsewhere and trade, but if you’re here, we’re not going to allow this plain economic sabotage. Also, we suspect whoever closes their shops to have some criminal intents.”
From the outset, we must state that what the world saw in that spontaneous encounter and subsequent days as the issues therein remained on the front burner, has little place in democracy, neither does it reflect sound, people-oriented leadership under the ethos of what has now been accepted across the globe as the best form of government.
Now, the last time we checked, Soludo is neither a military General nor even a soldier, but a highly-decorated academic, whose influence in the knowledge industry spans beyond education institutions, government – he was formally Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) – to international reckoning – consulting for some of the highest global bodies, including the United Nations.
Now, how does this selfsame global icon, reduce himself to a local dictator, dishing out orders as in regimental commands rather than employing that power of persuasion, which distinguishes brainpower – the emblematic factor of his training from raw strength of dictators in the gun business?
How does it fit? Do concepts like immediate effect and automatic alacrity form part of the recommendations Soludo makes to those global institutions he consulted for? Certainly no! So, why introduce them as his own governance template? That is the confusing, if not the disturbing part.
Is it not becoming clearer now? Is this military-style tendency not finding expression in the audacity captured in that ghoulish spectacle last year, where one Jennifer Elohor Edema, the young lady serving Nigeria under the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme, was stripped down to her birthday suit by some youths, visibly inebriated on influences of some brain-damaging substances, who were working for Soludo’s government?
By the way, when last did anyone hear anything about those criminals, outside the initial apparent crocodile tears at government places in Awka? Has anyone heard of any form of punishment? Have they been arraigned in court? If yes, what is the state of the trial?
In the instant case, we particularly detest the governor’s attempt to feign ignorance of the issues behind the conduct of the traders or his efforts to bury them under the veneer of righteous anger. To so do is deceitful, arrogant, if not self-serving – elements that seem to have, so unfortunately, formed part of the governance structure in Anambra State, as in most other states across the country, including the central government.
The issue here, if Soludo needs be reminded, is about the fate of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), currently serving life sentence at a facility in Sokoto, to where he was sent by Justice James Omotoso of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
Of course, the governor was right in claiming that the dangerous security situation in the state has changed for the better and that Anambra is no longer the killing field it was until recently. Obviously, the blood-thirsty terrorists responsible for the carnages witnessed in the state, including those ostensibly aimed at enforcement of the sit at home orders, seem to be on holiday and from the look of things are no longer returning.
So, if the governor says security or insecurity of the traders is no longer the big issue, he has a foundation to so state. At least for the first time in recent years, Christmas was celebrated in the entire Igboland with the usual fanfare under the robust atmosphere devoid of fear. That alone gives credence to the extent of these changes.
But that is not the end of the story. Kanu’s fresh ordeal seems to have introduced a new chapter to the entire saga. Now, the current sit-at-home option appears no longer out of fear of being attacked or killed, but the willingness of the traders to donate every Monday, in solidarity with the IPOB leader. This was evident in the Tuesday demonstration, where the message of the traders who thronged the streets of Onitsha, was clearly delivered with renditions like – Nnamdi Kanu is another saviour.
Therefore, Soludo, must be a complete novice or pathologically naïve to claim he is not aware of this new sentiment. But he is neither of the two. There is no way the governor would not have been seized of the compelling emotions around him.
So, for him to put up that show on Monday, is nothing but a gambit tailored towards gaslighting the public. His feigned anger against the traders for not opening their shops is as manipulative as it is deceitful, just as argument thereto regarding the economy implications is as puerile as it is spurious.
It is demonstrative of lack of emotional intelligence, as it showcases the absence of the required synergy between the government and the people, a phenomenon that has become characteristic in the South East in recent years, where a huge gulf and trust deficit exist between the people and those who lead them.
It is indeed laughable when South East governors, including Soludo, lay claims to the current calm in Igboland, when on the contrary, many of them are accused of being collaborators, either as active agents of being complicit through their conspiracy of silence.
Who does not know that the late President Muhammadu Buhari, was the vector that transported that killer disease to Igboland? Dan Nwanyanwu, National Chairman of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), has remained relentless in establishing this fact most pungently in the past and even quite recently.
Soludo, in his chest-beating mode, gives the impression that he somehow sprung a genie out of the magic lamp to create a sudden miracle that turned the parlous security situation around. No! It was the death of Buhari that ended the blitzkrieg in the South East. Simplicita!
Where was this genie when during the Buhari days, when the Aguata Local Government headquarters, where he comes from was razed to the ground or when a swathe of Ihiala and adjoining areas in the state became a hunting ground for the rampaging terrorists, codenamed Unknown Gunmen.
He was only content in the open and shut attitude of dismissing the carnage they wrought as the handiwork of Kanu’s Eastern Security Network (ESN), even when the group swore on their father’s grave that they were not involved.
Indeed, if there is ever going to be anything good in the government of President Bola Tinubu, it is the fact that he is not as hungry for the blood of the Igbo man as Buhari, who never hid the fact of his desire to continue the civil war against Ndigbo, more than 50 years after.
Had Tinubu, who upped the ante in the marginalisation of Ndigbo in many ways, escalated this penchant by toeing the line as part of his continuation of the Buhari legacy, which he promised Nigerians, he might have renewed the military contract Asari Dokubo claimed to have with Buhari.
Yes, though he never revealed details of the so-called contract, its nature could be gleaned from the manner the people were dying wotowotowoto, as the Niger Delta warlord, himself gloated about some years back.
He even backed his gloating up in that viral video, with a display of an AK-47, boasting how he would use the weapon to cure Ndigbo their “madness.” Is it not surprising that in all his public comments, neither Soludo nor his South East colleagues ever mentioned this obvious threat to his people.
So, nobody is deceived by the governor acting like Idi Amin of Uganda, who went berserk because he could not get more money printed from his central bank. Nobody is moved by his threat to even bulldoze that market. He is only being clever by half, if not acting a script.
It does not remove the fact that he and his colleagues suddenly went mute, then and now and remained tongue-tied at a historic moment when Ndigbo are battling to extricate themselves from the soggy, foggy, belly of the whale, like the biblical Jonah, as they are in Nigeria today. It does not belittle the fact that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is a metaphor for that horrible situation.
It is even worse that Soludo, arguably the most intellectually-gifted governor in Nigeria today, would be introducing some ethnic, sectional or indigene-based sentiments into the matter by trumpeting that those pursing the sit at home drive are not from Anambra. What a shame!
Who cares? Instead of such obtuse, infantile, if not asinine suggestion, would it not be more apposite for him to conduct a census in the entire Anambra, Aguata, his local government, Isuofia, his community and even the Soludo family to determine the number of Igbo people that are happy with the fate of not only Kanu, but Ndigbo in the hands of his friends in high authority today?
We hear that the traders have caved in. So, by Monday, expectedly, they would return to their shops – though definitely against their will. Soludo, would have scored another point and proven himself a strong man. But is it not a crab that makes itself king in shallow waters? Times shall tell!
John Chuma Nwosu, candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for the November 8, Anambra State Governorship Election, on Monday, joined other faithful in the Catholic Church across the world to celebrate Valerian Maduka Okeke, the Archbishop of Onitsha and the Metropolitan, on the day the renowned cleric turned 72.
Nwosu, himself a staunch Catholic, former Seminarian and Assistant Secretary to Francis Cardinal Arinze, who was a one-time Archbishop of the same diocese, before moving to the Vatican, where he is now one of the top leaders in the church, declared that Okeke, remained not only a true servant, but an example of God’s voice on earth.
He wrote: “Today, I join the Catholic faithful across the globe and the entire Christian community in Nigeria to celebrate His Grace, Most Rev. Valerian Maduka Okeke, the Archbishop of Onitsha and Metropolitan, on the glorious occasion of his 72nd Birthday Celebration.
“Your Grace, you are a perfect example that God indeed manifests Himself in diverse ways. You represent a demonstrable illustration of selflessness, piety, humility and holiness and through you, God has once again shown that the tortuous way of the cross will eventually manifest in the triumph of humanity.
“Your life of devotion, wisdom, and unwavering commitment to the service of God and humanity stands as a shining example of true leadership — the kind that inspires us to build a more just, peaceful, and progressive society. You have been a moral compass to our people, guiding us towards values that uplift and unite.
“As we celebrate you today, I am reminded that the kind of selfless service you embody is exactly what our beloved Anambra needs — leadership rooted in compassion, faith, and integrity. It is this same spirit that fuels my commitment to serve our people under the great umbrella of African Democratic Congress (ADC). You are indeed a custodian of faith, a messenger of God, a gift to humanity.
“May God continue to bless and keep you, Your Grace, granting you long life, strength, and divine wisdom to shepherd His flock and to keep inspiring a generation of leaders determined to build a better future.
“Your life remains a light to Anambra and beyond. Congratulations once again. Happy birthday, Your Grace!
“With deepest respect and warm regards.”
John Chuma Nwosu (ADC Gubernatorial Candidate )
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