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TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
Confusion is surrounding the death of a young auto mechanic identified as Chima Ikwunado, at Mile 1 Police Station in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Last weekend, it was alleged that the victim was tortured to death by an Eagle Crack Squad (E-Crack), who arrested Ikwunado at his workshop.
But, in a swift reaction, the state police command, through its spokesman, Nnamdi Omoni, said autopsy report according to the Commander of E-Crack, Superintendent of Police, SP Benson Adetuyi, showed that the victim died of high sugar level.
“Yesterday, some suspects, who were under detention at the Eagle Crack Squad at Mile 1 Diobu Port Harcourt, said it was not true that any detainee at the custody was tortured death.
The suspects, who spoke in the course of investigation, over the controversy surrounding the death of Ikwunado in police custody, said they had been in detection before the arrival of the victim and his boys (suspects too).
Police say the detainees, who are suspects of cultism kidnapping, car snatching and armed robbery including a suspected notorious armed robber identified as Odonkor terrorising Oyigbo area, said although they did not know what transpired at the scene of arrest, but no detainee was brought out for any torture.
They said that the late Ikwunado used to complain of health challenge and suddenly shouted one early morning and collapsed before he was rushed to the hospital and later died.
A senior police officer at the E-Crack office, who did not want to be mentioned, said the charge against the deceased and four others who are currently at Port Harcourt Correctional Services, was as a result of the robbery incident that was reported to the police.
The officer said the deceased stayed in the cell for more than ten days before his death, maintaining that he was not tortured.
Our correspondent gathered that Ikwunado and his boys (apprentices) were arrested on December 19, 2019.
