You could call it a harvest of deaths. Unknown gunmen, wearing masks, invaded a facility belonging to telecommunication giants, MTN, penultimate weekend and left considerable tragedy. By the time the evil men departed, no fewer than seven men had been brutally murdered, with some others gravely injured.

The dead included a team of engineers, policemen and others working on a mobile phone tower belonging to MTN in Aba.
Aba, the commercial nerve centre of Abia State, has, in the past few months been held hostage by kidnappers and other criminals. Each day, many people are abducted in broad daylight even as the state government and security agencies appear totally confused about how to stem the tide.

An eyewitness, who wouldn't want his name in print, narrated the incident to our reporter.
“The team of engineers had gone out to work at Gabby Oil, located on Aba Road, Aba, Abia State. While working on the generator, four gunmen walked into the BTS site while the team of engineers was waiting for the RBS to load after bringing up the generator. The workers were then held at gunpoint.

“It was also recorded that the team met some Ericssion engineers on site working on the transmission link. In the team were one Ericssion engineer, one driver, two mobile policemen, a rigger on top of the tower as well as the site security guard.
“The gunmen asked for Petroseal car key, but apparently couldn't get it because the person with the car key went to the hood to use the toilet. The four gunmen, still holding everyone at gunpoint, asked for the car key inside the BTS site.

Immediately the Petroseal engineer told them that the person in possession of the key went out to buy something and knowing full well that the Mopol was inside the shelter alongside the Ericssion staff and PETROLSEAL staff, the gunmen felt threatened. They then opened fire on everyone in the BTS site. They also came outside and shot the rigger on top of the tower. The other Ericssion engineer and his driver hid behind the RBS units in the site, so the fired bullets missed them.

“The gunmen then came outside the shelter and saw one of the Petrolseal staff, an AC technician, from whom they demanded for the car key. The technician told them that he didn't have the car key on him, so they collected the keys that he had on him which was the site key- 1 Abloy and 1 CISA Key. They went into the car and tried to use the key to start the car but couldn't. As they were doing that, the men heard some gunshots from afar. They soon discovered that it was a group of military men coming their way. The robbers then fled.”

Our reporter learnt that the AC technician, the Ericssion engineer and the driver were the only survivors of the sporadic firing. Six others, including one petroseal engineer, two mobile policemen, the rigger and the security man were killed at the scene. The second Petrolseal engineer died on arrival at the hospital.”
The dead men have since been deposited at the mortuary.

Source?

Daily Sun 05/10/2010