Onitsha Main Market, Anambra State, witnessed chaos on Tuesday night after a labourer was said to have fatally stabbed a yet-to-be-identified businessman.

According to reports, the businessman hired the labourer, to assist him in unloading products from his warehouse, which is located near the area of the market where baking supplies are sold.

An eyewitness claimed that trouble started when the man was unexpectedly found by his colleagues in a pool of his own blood while the handyman was nowhere in sight.

Young people in the neighbourhood were alarmed by the situation and rapidly organised themselves to find the alleged offender. This led other northerners to seek safety at the Army barracks and the Central Police Station (CPS) out of fear of retaliation attacks from the enraged crowd. The alleged culprit was identified as someone front the northern part of the country.

According to DSP Ikenga Tochukwu, the State Police Public Relations Officer, the incident is a murder case that occurred at Bright Street, inside the major market, at around 4 o’clock in the afternoon.

Tochukwu claimed that it doesn’t matter who the criminal is because he can’t confirm who did it.

He added that whoever commits murder will be held accountable because it is murder. Although, he said he does not “have any information about the identity of the suspect”, he pledges to ensure that they are apprehended and made to face the full force of the law.

The man was found in a pool of his own blood, according to the police spokesperson, who also claimed that officers swiftly deployed personnel to the site of the incident. The victim was taken to the hospital, where doctors confirmed that he was dead.