The Nsukka Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has described the explanation Kogi State Police Command gave in brutal killing of its colleague, Mr. Elias Ugwu, as totally fabricated.
Ugwu was allegedly shot and killed by operatives of the Kogi Police Command on Monday, March 9, 2024, after he had paid ransom to kidnappers who abducted his brother.
The Command’s spokesman SP Williams Anya, had, in statement on Thursday, blamed the victim for the killing, accusing him of not stopping when police operatives flagged him.
Anya in the statement titled, Setting the record straight, stated: “It would be recalled that, on 07/03/2024, armed robbers invaded Anyigba in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State and robbed three banks and also attacked Police stations.
“A tactical team was deployed to the area to restore normalcy and trail the hoodlums with a view to apprehending and bringing them to deserved justice.
“The tactical team received a report that some persons were sighted in a bush around Alade Village in Dekina Local Government with an ox-blood Toyota Avalon car roaming up and down for two days or more, asking the villagers for directions around the place where two vehicles and two motorcycles abandoned by the armed robbers were recovered.”
He added, “The operatives promptly swung into action and in conjunction with the local vigilantes moved into the area. When they sighted the car already described by the villagers, they waved down the driver to stop but instead, zoomed off.
“In a bid to stop the car, shots were fired at the tyres of the car which brought it to a halt. It was then discovered that the car conveyed three persons (the driver and two others).”
But reacting to the police statement, NBA condemned the deliberate distortion of facts and account of the event to protect its “killing squad.”
NBA in the statement signed by the branch chairman, Sunny Okoro, stated that Ugwu was deliberately and unjustifiably killed by state actors and demands an accountability.
Okoro explained that the police officers did not flag Ugwu and that rather, the operatives ambushed and shot him at close range.
Giving a detailed explanation on how the incident happened, the NBA chief, said the slain colleague left Nsukka on the fateful day to secure the release of his cousin, Alexander Ugwu, who was kidnapped alongside five other passengers at Ijih Urban Area in Kogi State, adding that the Police knew about the abduction but regrettably did nothing to rescue the victims.
However, he noted that their colleague had successfully delivered the ransom somewhere in Alede-Egume, and had secured the release of the cousin and was making his way back to Anyigba where his cousin resided alongside Chidi Aneke, who accompanied him from Nsukka.
According to him, when they got to Ojigbala-Egume, unknown to them, the Police laid an ambush for them.
“They drove into the ambush and the Police, without an attempt at even stopping their vehicle, opened fire and shot him dead.
“After shooting our colleague, the other two occupants of the vehicle made passionate pleas to the Police to rush him to the hospital, after identifying themselves and explaining their mission in the area.
“But the officers chose to treat them as suspected armed robbers, arrested and handcuffed the two survivors.
“At the time they eventually accepted to take our dying colleague to the hospital, it was already too late and he was pronounced dead on arrival,” he said.
The NBA boss said that lawyers in Nsukka were not happy with how police distorted the account of the event instead of holding their operatives liable for their unprofessional conduct.
“We have also read with dismay, the statement issued by the Police Command in Kogi, with all the distortions and contradictions that were laced with.
“We wish to put the records straight; first, that our colleague, Elias Ugwu, left Enugu State, on Saturday, the 9th day of March, 2024, the same day he was gruesomely killed by the police.
“It is, therefore, a deliberate misinformation, to state that he and his companions were seen roaming the bush in Kogi State for two days or more, before the 9th day of March 2024.
“It is also a deliberate and callous distortion to state that our colleague was flagged down and he refused to stop and that it was the tyres of the vehicle that the police targeted,” he said.
Okoro said the account of the survivors of the incident, was that police never stopped them but simply fired at Elias Ugwu.
“Why would the police allege that Elias Ugwu was killed in the bush when he had already entirely left the village where the ransom was paid and was driving to Anyigba, the residence of the kidnapped victim when he was killed,” he asked.
