According to eyewitnesses, a group of plainclothes police officers had gone out for a night of relaxation when the incident occurred.
File photo
A young Nigerian man, identified as Amuche has been killed by a trigger-happy police officer from the Nsukka Urban Police Division.
The incident happened at Echara Road in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State on Sunday night.
According to eyewitnesses, a group of plainclothes police officers had gone out for a night of relaxation when the incident occurred.
The trouble reportedly started when one of the officers began dancing with a woman, suspected to be a sex worker, in front of a bar.
The woman allegedly accused the officer of groping her breasts while they were dancing, leading to an altercation that ended up in the officer shooting Amuche.
The officer's identity has not been released, as the police are trying to cover it up, SaharaReporters reliably gathered.
"She alerted the management of the charlet and the manager had a heated argument with the policeman," said an eyewitness who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"In the process, one of them slapped the other person. At that point, the manager went inside the charlet and mobilised some boys who were working there.
"The Manager then slapped the policeman when he returned with the boys. It was at that point that the other policemen who were in company of the one dancing with the alleged prostitute, joined the fracas to rescue their embattled colleague.
"That was when one of them pulled an AK-47 rifle from their car and shot to disperse the crowd that gathered following the chaotic situation. A stray bullet then hit Amuche, who was playing snookers at the charlet when the incident started.
"The victim was already rushing to leave the venue when he was hit by the bullet. The policemen equally whisked away the manager of the charlet on the ground that he assaulted their colleague," the witness said.
The incident, incident however, sparked a wide protest as irate youths carried the corpse and protested to the Nsukka Police Division where they were allegedly asked to go and deposit the remains in the morgue.
Meanwhile, SaharaReporters efforts to get the police reaction were unsuccessful as the Command's spokesperson, DSP Daniel Ndukwe, didn't take his calls as at the time of filing this report.