From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
When Mr. Onyeka Emmanuel Ibe left home on April 5, he never knew that danger was lurking. But tragedy struck at a checkpoint where he was shot dead by Ubi Ebri, a police inspector, in the presence of his pregnant wife.
The incident happened on Illah Road, near Asaba, the Delta State capital. His offence, according to sources, was his alleged refusal to part with N100 tip to the trigger-happy cop.
However, Ubi, who has been arrested, alleged that the deceased tried to snatch his rifle from him in the presence of his team members who were also armed.
Described by friends as gentle and easygoing man, the late Ibe has added to the long list of victims of extra-judicial killings, which has become a regular feature in the state.
Though extra-judicial killings run contrary to both the Constitution of Nigeria and international laws, which presuppose that a suspect is innocent until proven guilty by the court, the practice has continued unabated.
Extra-judicial killings, police brutality, extortion and harrasment led to the #EndSARS protest that started in Ughelli area of Delta State in October 2020.
Despite the dire consequences of that protest and the subsequent setting up of the judicial panel of inquiry into cases of abuse and violation of human rights on the part of the police, incessant cases of killings of suspects have continued in Delta State.
Barely one year after the #EndSARS protest, precisely in September, 2021, another officer of the law reportedly shot dead a 29-year old man, identified as Gift, who was celebrating his birthday at a hotel in Obinomba in Ukwuani Local Government Area of the state. The police alleged that Gift was a suspected cultist, and that the supposed birthday event was an initiation ceremony.
Investigation revealed that in the same year, the police in Asaba, allegedly killed a boy believed to be in his twenties after the vehicle he was in moved from the road and crashed into a fence.
Detectives, who trailed the Mercedes Benz car with five occupants following a tip-off, to the DLA road axis of the town, shot at the tyres of the vehicle to demobilise it.
Witnesses said one of the boys was shot dead, another arrested while three others managed to escape from the police and the scene of the accident. The police, in justifying the act, said the boys were involved in a robbery operation and were escaping.
“We had intelligent report that they had just finished the operation and were moving towards DLA road. So our men mounted surveillance, and when the officers saw the car, they flagged it down but they refused to stop.
“As such, our men chased them to the point where their vehicle hit the fence. They opened fire on the officers who responded, and in the process, three of them escaped while one was shot,” the state actors claimed.
Just last February, one Kingsley Agidi, a bricklayer and father of three, was allegedly killed in hazy circumstances and his body is still being detained. Operatives of the State Anti-Cult Unit (SACU) attached to the Delta State Police Command were said to have shot the 39-year old man at a birthday party along Ogorode Road, Amukpe in Sapele.
A petition by O.J. Okoroze-Egbo & Associates on behalf of the bereaved family accused SACU operatives of also torturing the deceased, before shooting him and taking his body away. The petition, which was addressed to the Inspector General of Police, stated that “the victim never showed any sign of ill health before the day he was gruesomely murdered.”
According to the petition, the family was refused access to the body of their murdered son, insisting that the action of SACU was a calculated murder and extra-judicial killing.
The petitioners urged the IG to order an impartial and independent investigation into the torture and murder of Kingsley Agidi for no just cause, noting that SACU operatives were trying to suppress the matter.
Although sources within the police claimed that the victim exchange fire with the operatives, his cousin, Friday Jimikalaja denied the allegation.
“Kingsley was tortured openly and shot on his legs with a friend at that location and they took them away, only to shoot Kingsley again on his chest and the other boy’s head was open with what we think was a battle axe or cutlass,” he alleged.
Meanwhile, the police are in quandary over the medical and post-mortem reports of late Ovoko Onomrerhino, which an independent investigative panel on human rights violation by the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and other units, ordered to produce.
Ovoko, a father of five, was allegedly killed by operatives in 2019 in Abraka on allegation of armed robbery. The police had told the panel that Ovoko who was handcuffed jumped off a moving police van that was conveying him to Abraka Divisional Police Station, and was subsequently demobilised and taken to the hospital where he gave up the ghost.
Testifying, complainant in the matter and father of the deceased, Mr. Godwin Onomrerhino, told the panel that his son was a pipeline welder and never got himself involved in crime.
Onomrerhino said he received a telephone call from his son’s landlord informing him that the police officers had arrested his son. It was at this point, he stated that he visited Abraka Divisional Police Station where he was arrested and detained for two days by the police after calling him ‘father of armed robber.’
He informed the panel that he was eventually released from police detention following a petition written by his family members to the AIG Zone 5, Benin Edo state.
The complainant, who told the panel that his deceased son left behind five children, recalled that it was when the police released him from their custody that they told him for the first time that his son, Ovoko was dead and his corpse was deposited at a morgue Obiaruko.
Onomrerhino is demanding N100 milion compensation from the police, the local vigilante and authorities of Ethiope East Local Government Area of the state, as well as an order for officers involved in the alleged murder to be prosecuted.
In May 2020, two young men, Anne-ka Agbarou and O. Aki, were allegedly killed by some police-men attached to Jesse po-lice station, Jesse, Ethiope West Local Government Area of Delta State on allegation that the victims were cultists who attacked the station to free their colleagues.
Youths in the area under the auspic-es of Idjerhe Youth Rebirth (IYR) are insisting that one of them died as a result of police brutality while the other man was killed extra-judicially.
IYR in a petition signed by Akpojuwewoh Francis, President, and Doris Akowe, Secretary, called on the Inspector General of Police to investigate the killings, in-sisting that the story of a cell attack by the police was not true.
According to the petition, “there is no way only one per-son will raid a police station and battle through policemen at the counter to free suspects. Youths of the community have called for an unbiased investigation to unearth the truth surrounding their deaths.
“They are harmless youths who were murdered in their prime and that is ex-trajudicial killing, and we are condemning it in totality.”
In another petition ad-dressed to the IGP, by one Com-rade Akpe Wilson, called for an urgent and honest in-vestigation and prosecution of officer(s) involved in the ‘gruesome murder of Anne-ka Agbarou and O. Aki,’ in order to avoid another major crisis.
Wilson said Jesse people were in grief over broad daylight murder of harmless indigenes of Idjerhe kingdom, alleging that while Aki was denied access into the station, an altercation ensued which led to him being shot dead.
He alleged further that “af-ter shooting the young man to death at the gate, some police officers went inside the police cell to bring out Agbarou who was in the prison and thereaf-ter, they shot him to death.
“I write this petition to formally intimate you of the gruesome murder of Anne-ka Agbarou and O. Aki, due to unprofessional act capable of causing a breach of peace in Idjerhe Kingdom, by the police in the Jesse divisional police headquarters.
“While I entreat that you use your good office to re-strain the intemperance of the officer(s), involved in the alleged crime, I passionately plead and solicit your kind support to constitute a team of credible officers to investigate and prosecute the gruesome murder of Anneka Agbarou and O. Aki in furtherance to your commendable campaign to eliminate all manner of vic-es cum murder and corrupt practices among the police force in Nigeria whilst estab-lishing professionalism,” Wilson wrote.
The Delta State police com-mand had alleged that the two young men were suspected cultists who allegedly raided the police cell to free suspected armed robbers, and as a result, were gunned down by policemen on duty.
In the university town of Ozoro, Isoko North Local Government, one Collins was killed during a protest by youths suspected to be internet fraudstars against alleged police brutality and extortion. The 23-year old victim was reportedly hit by stray bullet from an officer, according to an eyewitness account.
“The youths came out to protest against the police continuous harassment of young boys suspected to be internet fraudsters.
“They complained about the police searching their phones on the way and asking them to pay some huge amount of money to bail themselves on the spot otherwise they will be taken to the station. Others complained of being invaded in their houses by the police without search warrant.
“The police later mobilized and in the process of trying to disperse the protesters, a gunshot from a stray bullet hit the boy and he died on the spot,” the source said.
In Udu area of the state, a woman was murdered in her daughter’s presence after they were allegedly dispossessed of their factory fitted tinted glass car.
A human right lawyer, Oghenejabor Ikimi told our correspondent that the woman was driving at about 6.30pm along the lonely expressway by Udu Bridge in DSC when the police stopped her at a cheeckpoint.
“The police said she was using a tinted vehicle when in actual sense the vehicle was factory fitted. But because they wanted money, they ordered the woman out of the car and drove it away, leaving the woman and her daughter behind.
“The woman attempted to call her husband but the inspector refused, saying that she wanted to call armed robbers.
“So, as they were walking to the police station, they saw a tricycle not knowing that the occupants were armed robbers. They entered the tricycle but the occupants soon pushed them out and shot the woman at close range.
“Sympathersers came and took the body to the hospital where she was confirmed dead. When they tracked the police team, they said police was not responsible for her death but it was the conduct of the police that led to her death,” Ikimi said.
Ikimi, who is the coordinator of Centre for the Vulnerable and the Under Privileged, attributed the incessant cases of extra-judicial killings to lack of training of police officers, corruption in the force, poor equipment and poor welfare.
“Well, the causes are much but the ones I can identify are the police corruption in the force. FG ought to provide for police at check points the way they provide for soldiers, they give them food which is not applicable to the police. They just arm the officers without making any welfare provision in terms of feeding.
“The soldiers have their breakfast and lunch. What do you expect when you arm an angry man with gun, in most cases all the extortion you see on the road ought not to be. The police at checkpoints commit offence of armed robbery because the money they are taking from people is under compulsion. It is only when it comes to killing someone that the public raises eyebrow,” Ikimi.
He added that officers of the force needed to trained and retrained, insisting that hiding under the force code was not enough reason for operatives to kill innocent civilians.
“You don’t need to execute somebody just because he is not cooperating at a checkpoint. The police are trained to maim, and not to kill. That is why the police is a civilian force. A man who is not cooperating, all the police need to do is to handcuff him and call for reinforcement.
“If the police says someone is not cooperating, he does not need to resort to killing because he will become the complainant, the judge and the executioner at the same time.
“Also, we need equipment for the force, at the moment, the police is il-equipped. We need close circuit cameras so that the police do not really have to be on the road,” he said.
He noted that the corruption within the force cannot be treated in isolation, stating that the entire system in the country was very corrupt.
“You see the tip they collect has almost become an entitlement to them because of the endemic corruption in the force.
“And that cannot be treated in isolation because of the quantum of corruption in our system as a nation. The police is an embodiment of the society, it is a reflection of the evil in our society.
“There is need to first of all disorient of all this entitlement mentality and then re-orient them because they are law enforcement agents and not law breakers,” Ikimi submitted.
Meanwhile, the commissioner of police in the state, Mr. Ari Mohammed Ali, said the command under his watch will not condone neither will the force support any act of extra-judicial by officers.
Ali said the force, as a disciplined organisation, has its own internal discipline mechanism, noting that all reported cases of extra-judicial killings would be properly investigated and the culprits summarily dismissed to face prosecution for the offense of murder.
