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•NBA, others demand coroner’s inquest, justice
From Magnus Eze, Enugu
More details have emerged on why and how operatives of the Kogi State Command of Nigeria Police Force brutally killed an Enugu-based legal practitioner, Elias Ugwu.
Eli, as he was fondly called by those who knew him, had on March 9, 2024, gone and successfully delivered ransom to those who abducted and held his cousin, Alexander Ugwu, and five others in a bush in Kogi State.
Having secured Alexander’s release, both of them alongside his friend, Chidi Aneke, were riding in Eli’s car to Ayingba, when a police team from Dekina Area Command reportedly ambushed them. They shot the lawyer in the head and he reportedly died as they got to a hospital.
The Kogi State Police Command admitted that their men killed Eli but said that they had mistaken them for armed robbers that had operated in the area, including robbing three banks and attacking police stations some days earlier.
A statement by police public relations officer in the state, Williams Ovye Aya, a superintendent of police, claimed that, following report of the invasion of Ayingba by armed robbers, a tactical team was deployed to the area to restore normalcy and trail the hoodlums with a view to apprehending them.
“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.
“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 (he) 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). The two men gave their names as Chidi Anieke and Alex Ugwu both of Nkanu and Ihiakpoka, Nsukka, while the driver was identified as Barr. Elias Ugwu.
“The driver sustained injuries and was taken to the Maria Goretti Hospital, Ayingba, for treatment, where he gave up the ghost. The two surviving men stated that they were in Alade bush in Dekina Local Government for ransom payment to secure the release of a victim of kidnapping.
“They equally stated that they were not aware of the bank robbery that took place in Ayingba, Dekina Local Government, and that they did not report or inform the police of the alleged kidnap incident nor of their presence or mission in that area, hence they were suspected to be part of the hoodlums that invaded Ayingba on 7th March, 2024,” the police stated.
According to the statement, the Commissioner of Police, Kogi State Police Command, extended his condolences to the family of the deceased over the unfortunate incident, saying that was avoidable, if they had stopped when his men waved them down.
But, Eli’s colleagues in the Nsukka branch of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) described the police’s account as a cock and bull story.
The NBA, in its position contained in a statement by the branch chairman, Sunday Okoro, said that Eli Ugwu was deliberately and unjustifiably killed by state actors.
Vowing that the association would continue to push until justice was duly served, Okoro insisted that their slain colleague left Nsukka on the fateful day he was killed and had succeeded in securing the release of his abducted cousin, Alexander, only to be killed by police on his way back to Ayingba, where his cousin resided.
“Information available to us is that our late colleague’s cousin, one Ugwu Alexander, was kidnapped alongside five other passengers at Ijih Urban Area, between Aloma and Ejule, in Kogi State and were taken into the bush and made to contact their relations for the payment of ransom for their release.
“The said Ugwu Alexander made a distress call to our late colleague and intimated him of the state of affairs, prompting our colleague to start making frantic efforts to raise the ransom and secure the release of his cousin.
“Upon sourcing the demanded ransom, our colleague made reports to the Anti-Kidnapping Office of the Nigeria Police Force, and also the Divisional Headquarters of the Nigeria Police Force, Ogrute, Enugu-Ezike, in Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area, both in Enugu State, intimating both commands of the kidnapping, and his proposed journey to Kogi State to deliver the ransom.
“Our colleague proceeded to Kogi State to deliver the ransom as directed by the kidnappers.
“After delivering the ransom at somewhere in Alede-Egume, and securing the release of the said Ugwu Alexander, our colleague was making his way back to Anyigba where his cousin resides, with his cousin and one other person, Chidi Aneke, who accompanied him from Nsukka, and when they got to Ojigbala-Egume, unknown to them that the police had 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 our colleague in the head; it is also worthy to mention that the police van was packed away from the road, to avoid suspicion as they laid in wait for the car.
“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 then dying colleague to the hospital, it was already too late and he was pronounced dead on arrival.
“We have also read with dismay the statement issued by the Kogi State Police Command with all the distortions and contradictions that it is 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 prior to 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. Our colleague, by the account of the survivors of the incident, was never stopped at all, but was simply fired at by an officer later simply identified as Sampolo, on jumping out from the bush where he and his colleagues hid waiting for the vehicle.
“Furthermore, 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, and the victim of the kidnap already reaching out to people, joyfully announcing his freedom? What are the police intending to hide?
“It’s disheartening that the Kogi State Police Command would, instead of showing sympathy and remorse for this obviously reckless act, choose rather to embark on churning out spurious allegations aimed at shielding their personnel from the law.”
The NBA, Nsukka branch, chairman disclosed that the body has petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, seeking that an independent investigator be appointed for the matter.
Not leaving anything to chance, Okoro also said that he travelled to Lokoja, Kogi State, and engaged the services of a legal practitioner to follow up the issues of autopsy, coroner’s inquest and others.
“We’ve done what we are supposed to do by getting our petitions into some places and trying to get people that will follow up. So, we have sent a petition to the IGP to see if we can get independent investigators from there. We still, as a matter of protocol, sent to the Commissioner of Police, Kogi State, and equally sent to the senator representing us and the House of Representatives member for Igboeze South/Nsukka Federal Constituency.
“Then I have detailed the national president and secretary and SSA to the President of NBA. We are getting good responses. I’ve equally gone down to Lokoja to brief a lawyer that will follow up the issues of autopsy and coroner’s inquest and all that. So, in my branch, I have constituted a committee that would follow up all these things because one person can’t do it all,” Okoro said.
Eli’s friends have been in mourning since the incident.
One of them, simply identified as Obetta, a legal practitioner too, also questioned the veracity of the police story.
According to him, the press release by Nigerian Police Force, Kogi State Command, was a trumped-up story filled with figments of the imagination and falsehood.
“It was hurriedly done to counter the trending news on various print and social media over the gruesome maiming of Barr. Eli Ugwu. This should not in any way be acceptable to NBA and the family.
“How can NPF start shooting at a vehicle simply because they refused to stop when they were waved down, to the extent of killing a passenger?
“It is important to even ascertain if there was even a robbery incident in the area as claimed by the police and match their claim that there was a tip-off from the community.
“How long had Eli and Co. been in the vicinity? Could the police’s story that they had been patrolling within the acclaimed robbery area for about two days be substantiated?” Obetta queried.
Daily Sun further gathered that his friends, associates and club members have all vowed that justice must be secured for their slain colleague.
