Sir Mike Mbama Okiro

Inspector-General of Police &

Michael Aandooka (SAN)

Attorney General & Minister of Justice

Federal Republic of Nigeria

Sir,

It is with heavy heart that I write you this petition, praying your office to quickly intervene and investigate the gruesome extra-judicial killing of three young men by trigger-happy members of the Mopol of the Nigerian Police force, on Saturday the 29th of November, 2008. 

According to reliable information reaching me in my base in UK, 3 men where on Okada ride from Kwale to Obiaruku via Amai, in Ukwuani local government area of Delta State. One of the 3 men is an Okada (motor cycle transporter) rider who picked 2 other Passengers- my town man, called Nze Akor, a forty year old father of 7 children, and another passenger later, on board the Okada's bike. Nze, who is Obiaruku born, but now resides in Kwale is a Sculptor/Artist, boarded the Okada in Kwale to Amai where he was handling a building project's Sculptural works. He had a cheque of N120,000 along with some cash on him on his journey. The Okada man picked up another passenger from Ogume, on his way from Kwale to Amai. Note that the Okada rider nor the second passenger picked at Ogume are all unknown to each other, but all going on their normal business activity. 

When the Okada got to Amai village at about 6.30pm they were stopped by a team of mobile police, including the driver and orderly of the Ukwuani local government chairman, Mr Chukudi Dafe (Alias Unbreakables!). According to the police "story" they found a hand gun in the waist of one of the three men in the Okada. And so the mobile police group took the three men to Obiaruku Police station and, after interrogation, which lasted less than an hour, the police called on the chairman of the local government, to tell him they have caught some "hard criminals" and the chairman, Mr Chukudi Dafe, told them to do the "normal thing" to robbers, and the police in Obiaruku police station, summarily shot and killed all three men, without the chance to prove their innocence or guilt! 

I am so infuriated that in this century life in Nigeria can be so cheap that people are murdered by a police force which is supposed to protect them in such a gruesome, reckless manner, like they are killing Chickens. 

I know the family of the Akors in Okuzu quarters of Obiaruku and went to School with the elder sister of the murdered Nze Akor, Ms Mabel Akor who is a nurse in Abuja, and I can bet they don't raise criminals let alone armed robber. A forty year old hard working artist and sculptor with a wife and 7 children had just been murdered extra judicially leaving his family to suffer in a country where their is no social security for the young and old, and yet the police in Obiaruku is trying to frame-up lies to cover their tracks. 

Even if a real gun and bullets was found in the waist of one man in the Okada as the mopol men are claiming, there was no proof that they were using the gun for any criminal act, no robbery encounter with the police nor exchange of gun fire. The men were arrested freely and taken to the police station some 8 miles away to another town in Obiaruku. So why not lock them up in cells and charge the person with gun for unlawful possession of gun or any charge? Why the summary execution of all people on the Okada transport? 

There was also the suggestion that the police killed all three men in the Okada because Mr Nze Akor had on him cash and cheque totaling about N300,000.00, been monies given to him by the owner of the building he was doing Artistic and painting works on. The police took the money as well as his mobile phone, as Nze attempted to make a call to his wife, to alert her of police arrest but was prevented from doing so by the police who snatched the phone off him 

Human rights was rightly adopted as one of your "9-WayTest for The Nigeria Police Force" and also the Attorney General and Minister of Justice has been harping on the “rule of law.” They both espoused that there will be no torture or extra judicial killings anymore when they assumed office as Inspector General of Police as well as Minister of Justice of the Nigerian Federation. So why is this happening?  Please investigate this criminal act and bring everyone involved in this wrongful and extra-judicial killing to justice, including if possible the Ukwuani local Government chairman, if it is proven that he ordered the killing of innocent men. 

The most annoying thing is that the three bodies which were left at the Obiaruku General Hospital Mortuary by the police on the instruction of the chairman of the Ukwuani local government area, Chukudi Dafe, has been secretly buried by Mr Dafe, despite protestation against early burial by the families of the murdered victims, particularly the Acor family of Obiaruku, at the wee hours of 3.00am so that the chairman and police can hide their heinous acts. 

So sir please start investigation and find out who these police men are and the role of the DPO at Obiaruku police station.  

Waiting patiently for justice to be done. 

Verere Ojeli-Onyema

Barking, IG11,

Essex

England 

Robot  # 1 | 18.12.2008 07:36

A forty year old hard working artist and sculptor with a wife and 7 children had just been murdered extra judicially leaving his family to suffer in a country where their is no social security for the young and old, and yet the police in Obiaruku is trying to frame-up lies to cover their tracks.Read the full article.

Kelechi  # 2 | 18.12.2008 07:52

We are at it again, huh!:frown:

Dreams  # 3 | 18.12.2008 09:02

Very very pathetic. Wondering what the police would say about this.:sad::sad::sad:

akuluouno  # 4 | 18.12.2008 09:43

What a pathetic story. May the gentle souls of Nze Akor and the two other rest in peace. May God also grant the Nze family the fortitude to bear this untimely, gruesome and irreparable loss. I think it was the redoubtable John Donne, who said that the death of any man dimnishes us adding that we should not bother to go out and check for whom the bell tolls because it tolls for each an evey one of us:sad::sad: Please in the name of all that is civilized, I implore the relevant authorities to listen and act on the representations of the petitioner for the sake of God. I have always argued that it is innocent blods like this, which are the same as that of Abel in the Bible, which often go unmitigated that have held Nigeria down as a nation in spite of the abundant resources she may be endowed with. This is Akuluouno's law of spiritual underdevelopment. The earth is sacred and if an innocent blood is spilled on it without efforts made at cleansing it, such blood has a way of making it difficult for the nation to make progress.

Yokofilemu  # 5 | 18.12.2008 09:43

Last month a young man, was killed by the Otukpo police in the same manner. Its a pity. It is time to rise against the police like what the people in Greece are doing. But knowing Nigeria for what we are, we will all say ehh...yah! and life goes on tomorrow. i hope someone does something about this. George Onmonya Daniel

WaleAkin  # 6 | 18.12.2008 10:11

Trigger happy police Officers at their very best........Lets see what the CP and IGP will do, justice may take a longer time to come but surely it will! This is just like the Apo 6 case. May the soul of the departed rest in peace!

SILOJE  # 7 | 18.12.2008 10:58

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200812182114243 Sagamu tragedy: Our mother was not a robber – Children By Olalekan Adetayo and Ademola Oni Published: Thursday, 18 Dec 2008 The children, widower and the employer of a woman, Mrs. Funmilayo Abudu, who was killed in the First Bank of Nigeria Plc robbery in Sagamu on Friday, have restated their position that the woman was not an armed robber as claimed by the police. They spoke at a news conference jointly organised by two non-governmental organisations, The Real Woman Foundation and Women Arise, in Lagos on Wednesday. Amidst tears, the children recalled that despite the fact that their mother was a poultry worker and their father a vulcanizer, the deceased made it a point of duty to warn them daily on the danger inherent in stealing. “Our mother was not a robber. She was the one that normally warned us not to steal. She was not a thief,” 10-year-old Shalewa said before she broke down in tears. The deceased’s widower, Waniyu, also insisted that his wife was not a thief. “My wife was not a thief. If a woman is a thief, her husband will know, and vice-versa. All I am pleading for is for the police to remove this stigma and release her corpse for me so that we can give her a befitting burial,” he said in tears. The Manager, Demirs Farms, employers of the deceased, Mr. Rasaq Asiwaju, insisted that he was the one who sent Funmilayo to a nearby filling-station to buy fuel for the farm‘s generator when she met her untimely death. Asiwaju said that from where she was hiding while robbers were engaging policemen in a shootout, the deceased managed to put a call through to the farm, warning her co-workers to be careful and ensure that all the gates were locked. At the news conference jointly addressed by Pastor Nike Adeyemi and Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, the two groups alleged that the incident was a premeditated plan to brand the innocent lady an armed robber to prove that the police were working. They said the groups were concerned that the bereaved family now carried the double jeopardy of bereavement and unjust stigmatisation. While acknowledging the promise of the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, to investigate the matter, the groups asked that the probe should consist of people from civil society grouos and not the police alone. They also demanded that all the culprits should be made to face the full wrath of the law while adequate compensation should be paid to the family to take care of the children she left behind. “It is our concerned view that the highest command of the police force and the government must now take seriously the reformation of our police to give it a human face and create an organisation that can serve the people without sacrificing innocent citizens like Funmilayo to prove a needless point,” the groups said. Meanwhile, a veiled admission that the woman could have been killed in error came from a policemen on Wednesday. Speaking with one of our correspondents in Abeokuta, a senior police officer said the police could not have known that anyone was hiding in the swamp along Sagamu-Ikenne Road when the bank robbers turned the area to a battle field in their desperate bid to escape. The police source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, in the absence of his commissioner, Mr. Emmanuel Ayeni, explained that the policemen could not have waited to find out if anyone was hiding in the swamp where the bandits had taken refuge. Ayeni had, while briefing the press after the robbery incident at the state Police Command Headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta, stated that the slain woman was the leader of the robbery gang.

Kabikala  # 8 | 18.12.2008 11:13

The rate at which calamities occur in Nigeria, it will be a miracle if this issue attracts any attention from anyone in government or even in the media. It is just too commonplace and so many other evil things abound in the land that many people will just move on with their lives after reading it (and the usual Ee-yah, like someone said). This can not even be a front page story in any Nigerian newspaper. Look at how much human life is now worth! I had a hot argument with a DPO some weeks back when he tried to justify extra-judicial killings by the Nigerian Police. He explained how in the course of their investigation (in the midst of myriads of problems such as lack of equipment, lack of motivation, lack of adequate manpower among other evils), the Police in a few cases manage to get a breakthrough and arrest a criminal. And what does the courts do? They free the criminal or give a ridiculous jail sentence; like 3 months imprisonment with an option of fine, sometimes less than N20,000. According to him, even before the case gets to court, the phone calls start to come from people in high places and the Police hierarchy comes under tremendous pressure to sometimes release criminals caught in the very act. According to him, the Policemen who are involved in the criminal's arrest now become easy targets. He gave me a gory picture of how hundreds of policemen are killed yearly in Nigeria by criminals and how these same criminals are allowed by the porous criminal justice system to escape when (in a few instances) they are caught. My own consistent argument was that if the Nigerian Police is encouraged to dispense justice in this callous manner, it will certainly be abused. This has been documented in several Human Rights Reports (2006 and 2007) where the Police in Nigeria have been alleged to kill innocents in their Rest-in-Pieces campaign. At the end of the day, the DPO gave me an analogy of what I will do if a criminal who invades my house, rapes my wife, injures me and dispossesses me of my belongings is eventually caught by the Police and was ordered to be released by the court once he is able to pay a N20,000 fine. I then gave him my own analogy asking him what he will do if his brother who is a student in a higher institution is arrested for wandering at Pen Cinema by 6 pm and paraded the next day as a robbery suspect only to be killed a week later when no one could come to bail him. At the end of the day, he stuck to his gun, I stuck to mine. Post-script: Can someone tell me what is happening to the Uzoma Okere's assault case? What was the decision of the Nigerian Navy Panel on Admiral Arogundade's culpability?

maikanodahiru  # 9 | 18.12.2008 11:24

Sad indeed! May God save poor Nigerians. Abdullahi

Nzeman  # 10 | 18.12.2008 11:43

It is pathetic. Life is just too cheap in Nigeria. Lazy policemen are so scared of real armed robbers and they run away to catch innocent people who they kill snd display their body as "armed robbers." A lady, who appear innocent was killed last week by the notorious lying Nigerian police and branded "the leader of 20 armed robber gang." They can't catch real robbers but always kill innocent people and then plant guns and bullets on top of slained bodies as "evidence" that those ruthlessly murdered are robbers. What are our human rights bodies doing? CDHR, Amnesty International, and others should please take the case of this innocent Mr Akor killed and wasted leaving 7 young children and wife fatherless in a country where there is no Welfare benefits. How would these children survive the already hopeless economic situtation in Nigeria, where those in government are only interested in stealing. The local government chairman of ukwuani , in Delta state, should be investigated in his role of instructing the Mobile police to summarily execute people within 1 hour of been arrested. The three men were never caught in robbery but were arrested quitely in a police check point. so why the haste to execute them? I can't believe some of the things that happen in that shameless country.

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