In the face of mounting public outcry against the alleged
murder of 36-year-old Ugochukwu Ozuah, the Lagos State Police Command has
maintained its stance that the deceased was shot by suspected armed robbers in
police uniform and not police officers as alleged.
This came as the principal witness in
the entire saga, Omene Irikefe, the deceased’s friend who was also with him on
that fateful night was alleged to have fled to safety following purported
attempts to arrest him.
It would be recalled that the deceased
was killed last Thursday by gunshots allegedly fired by some police officers at
Gbagada barely five days after his wedding ceremony with his heartthrob, Joan.
THISDAY investigations revealed that
the police had stormed Irikefe’s house for questioning but met an empty
apartment as the principal witness, acting on a tip off, fled to safety.
According to a member of the
deceased’s family who spoke on conditions of anonymity, Irikefe had fled for
fear of his life because of the purported cover-up of the incident by the
police.
He said: “The police had alleged that
Irikefe did not make any statement on the night the said incident happened but
Irikefe maintained that he did and we believe him.
“How did the police know his house
address if he did not make any statement? In fact, it’s hard to believe that a
whole Divisional Police Officer (DPO) drove Irikefe to the station and later
drove him to the hospital without asking for a statement.”
He added: “With the way the police
were going about the entire situation, he had no option but to run for his
life. After writing a statement, the police claimed he did not.”
Speaking to THISDAY Monday at their
residence in Lagos, the family’s spokesperson and elder sister to the deceased,
Mrs. Nkechi Nnonyelu, said all the family was asking for, is for the
truth from the police for justice to prevail.
She said: “So far, the police are not
taking responsibility and it’s very funny because from all indications, there
is a cover up going now. Anyone can make mistakes but it’s another thing owing
up to that mistake so that the family can move forward and begin the healing
process.
“It’s very strange that an accident
like that happened and a whole DPO will attend to the scene of the incident and
in his words, when he got there, Ugo was still jerking.
“We then asked him why Ugo wasn’t
first taken to the hospital before the blame game began. He was there watching
all the while till he breathed his last and they didn’t do nothing.”
She added: “Without prompting, the
DPO also told me that they had already scouted the scene of the incident to
look for shells that might have emanated from the gun.
“My husband then asked how they could
have searched the area for bullets because it was pitch black. The DPO said
they used torch lights. So what are they covering up?”
On whether the family would take
legal action against the police, she said: “First and foremost, we want justice
for Ugo and that is why we are fighting so that the incessant killing of
victims by the police would stop.”
Speaking on the controversy
surrounding the purported statement, Nnoyelu said the DPO also told her at the
hospital that he drove Irikefe to the station first to drop Ugo’s car and then
make a statement.
She said: “I was surprised on
Saturday when the same DPO that told me he was waiting for Irikefe to finish
writing his statement, turned around to claim he never wrote any.
“We find it very strange and we
believe a cover-up is going up. Why would they demand for another statement?
When my husband confronted them, it was then they said they remembered he put
something down.”
However, the state Police Public
Relations Officer (PPRO), Ngozi Braide, a Deputy Superintendent of Police
(DSP), maintained that Irikefe did not make any statement to the police as
alleged.
She said the police had gone back to
invite him to the station only to learn that he had gone back to his base.
Source: Thisday
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