Operatives of the Delta State Police Command who resorted to forceful dispersal of a group of protesting women have led one middle-aged woman to be shot while many others sustained varied degrees of injury in Ughelli on Monday

According to the PUNCH, the women from Oteri-Ughelli in the Ughelli North Local Government Area were protesting against alleged incessant harassment and extortion by policemen in the community.

Eyewitnesses said what started as a peaceful protest turned bloody when the aggrieved women, in their hundreds, who had mobilised to the Police Area Command office in Ughelli to register their grievances, were rebuffed by the men and officers of the area command.

The women protesters carried placards with assorted inscriptions such “Oteri-Ughell is a peaceful community with law-abiding citizens, stop making life difficult for us”; “Police are making life difficult for our poor and innocent citizens”; etc.

But security operatives reportedly used heavy teargas against the unarmed women and shot one middle-aged woman in her left leg while others were beaten to stupor.

Two leaders of the protesting women, who volunteered to speak with journalists, Harvest Ugbhwiako and Mrs. Vivian Aphiare, alleged that the police unlawfully arrested and detained their children and wards who were on errands. She said they were made to part with between N150,000 and N200,000 to secure their release on bail.

Also addressing newsmen at the emergency ward of the General Hospital, Ughelli, where some victims of the police gunshots were admitted, the President General of the community, Efe Peter, berated the police “for using guns with live ammunition against the peaceful protesters”.

He said, “The women from Oteri community were in peaceful protest to the palace of the Ovie (monarch) of Ughelli kingdom and the Area Commander to register their grievances.”

Efe stated that the Area Commander called him to appeal to the protesting women to go home, promising that he would look into their complaints, “but before I looked back, policemen started shooting and teargassing the women, thereby shooting one in the leg and injuring many.”

He lamented that “people of the community had come to notice, with worries, that they could no longer access their community nor come out from the community without experiencing extortion by policemen.”

The Police Area Commander in Ughelli, ACP Adebayo, while speaking to journalists stated that his office “is looking into the complaints of the community with a view to sanctioning erring police officers and men.”

The CP disclosed that he already disbanded a squad of hunters in the command.