quote:Three killed in fracas By Onyekwere Patricia, Lukmon Busari, Charity Nwankwo, Juliana Francis Friday, September 9, 2005
The alleged killing of a cart pusher by the police in the Orile Iganmu area of Lagos Wednesday, sparked a fracas yesterday resulting in the death of two other young men.
Daily Sun gathered that Chidozie Okeke was allegedly killed when policemen on patrol bumped into him and other cart pushers allegedly smoking indian hemp. He was allegedly shot in a bid to stop him from escaping. His body was said to have been left in the canal at Alafia Bus Stop, Orile. Yesterday, area boys, who were incensed by the killing, challenged policemen who returned to take the corpse away.
The police, in a bid to scare away the mob, allegedly opened fire, leaving two other persons dead and several others injured. One of the deceased, Emmanuel Uwanaka (27), who runs a communication outfit in the area, was shot on the forehead. He died before medical help could reach him. Speaking with Daily Sun, an eye witness, Dominic Nwaogbaga, said the deceased was in front of his shop when the bullet hit him.
According to him, the bullet was not a stray bullet, but aimed at him. "The police were not shooting in the air to clear the angry mob. They were aiming at anybody. Another guy was shot in the leg. What kind of police do we have in this country? They are supposed to protect life and property, but what do we have? Police taking life." he fumed.
Speaking on the incident, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Olubode Ojajuni, said the command was not aware of the killing of anybody by the police at Orile. According to him, policemen at the Orile Division were carrying out their duty when an angry mob, "for reasons best known to them", attacked the police.
He said: "A corpse was left at Alafia bus stop. Someone came to alert the police. Our men went to remove the corpse and people tried to stop them from doing so. The police don’t know who killed the man. In fact, nobody has come forward to identify the corpse of the man. The corpse was left at the bus stop in the night by an unknown person." Ojajuni added: "If anybody has proof that police killed anybody, let alone three people, let them produce the evidence."
___________________ Feel me? Ofu onye ana asi unu abia go. - Ednut Igbo-American . www.airamericaradio.com visit her. Posts: 2447 | From: Mother Earth | Registered: Mar 2001
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DISCREPANCY noticed in a legal fiat granted Chief Chris Uche (SAN) by Attorney General of the Federation (AG), Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN) yesterday stalled trial of policemen who allegedly killed five Igbo traders and a lady in Apo Mechanic Village, Abuja on June 18.
The matter, which was adjourned because Abuja High Court was on vacation, resumed yesterday but could not go on due to the discrepancy in the fiat and contents of the original suit filed by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) against the policemen.
The accused policemen, now held at Kuje Prisons, Abuja, include Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) (Operations), Mr. Danjuma Ibrahim, who allegedly masterminded the killings on Gimbiya Street in Area Eleven.
Others are Divisional Police Officer (DPO) for Garki Police Station, Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), Abdulsalami Othman still at large, leader of the Ambush Squad, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Nicholas Zakariah and five other policemen. They were charged to court along with Ibrahim for complicity in the murder.
Both the police panel of inquiry headed by DIG Mike Okiro and the Presidential Judicial Panel, headed by Justice Olasumbo Goodluck had indicted the policemen over the killings.
However, public outcry that the police would not do a good job in the prosecution made Chief Ojo to grant Chief Uche fiat (legal authority) to prosecute the suspects.
Meanwhile, in court yesterday, while the charge sheet bore "Inspector-General of Police versus Danjuma Ibrahim and others," the fiat handed over to Chief Uche bore "Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) versus Dajuma Ibrahim and others."
Mr. Rickey Tarfa (SAN) lead defence counsel in the matter, however, informed Justice Ishaq Bello that the discrepancy ought to be straightened out.
The judge in granting adjournment to October 4, urged Chief Uche to sort out the discrepancy with the AGF.
The traders were allegedly killed by the DCP allegedly over a squabble at a night club along the popular Gimbiya Street, but the police turned out to frame the victims for armed robbery.
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APO Six: Witness indicts Danjuma, narrates police cover up From GODWIN TSA, Abuja Thursday, January 26, 2006
quote: Mores Stories on This Section A witness in the extra- judicial killing of six civilians at the Apo Mechanic Village, Abuja, Police Constable Haruna Mamot, Wednesday, gave a chilling account of how the victims were killed by former Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Danjuma Ibrahim and the attempts made by the police to cover up the killings.
Six police officers, DCP Danjuma Ibrahim, Othman Abdusalam (CSP now at large), Nicholas Zakaria (ASP), Ezekiel Acheneje [PC], Baba Emmanuel (PC) and Sadiq Salami (PC) are standing trial in the murder of the six civilians.
Meanwhile, attempts by Danjuma’s counsel, Mr. Rickey Tarfa (SAN), to tender a video documentary on the killings was rejected by the court following the objections by prosecution counsel, Chief Chris Uche (SAN) who questioned the source of the video tape.
The court has however said it will wait for the compliance of the order issued on the Deputy Inspector General of Police [DIG] Mike Okiro, to produce the Certified True Copy (CTC) report of the Administrative Panel of Enquiry set up by the police to look into the circumstances surrounding the killings.
The order for the report was at the instance of defence counsels who said they wanted to clarify some contradictions. Giving an insight into what transpired on June 7, 2005, Mamot said he was posted to the print at Gimbiya Street when about I.30 am of June 8,2005, DC Danjuma visited them and warned that they should be on alert.
He said Danjuma came to the scene in his private car, a BMW car which he parked by the pavement of the road and sat inside the car.
According to him, soon after the warning, "a Peugeot 406 came along at full speed. Myself, Yakubu Philibus and Ibrahim Garba flashed the car to stop, it slow down and continued to move. The DC tried to stop them but they refused to stop. He therefore used his BMW car to block the 406 car and his car was hit in the process. Thereafter, he instructed Inspector Suleiman Audu to fire but he refused to fire. The DC seized the inspector’s riffle and fired at the Peugeot 406 with an AK 47 riffle. He then called on us to search the car. The driver and a girl came out of the car from the front seat and the DC ordered them to lie down.
"The four occupants of the back seat were in the pool of their blood. We searched the car but did not find anything incriminating on them. The DC called a patrol team to take the dead and the injured men to Garki Police Station."
He said it was at the Garki Police Station that the DPO, CSP Othman Abdusalam commenced moves to cover up the incident. Firstly, their original statements to the DPO on the true situation of the case, was torn apart as they were teleguided to write a different statement. He said he wrote eight statements all together on the incident but it was only the first and the last statement that captured the true position of the circumstances that led into the death of the six civilians."
According to him, he was directed to include in the statement that the victims were arm robbers who opened fire on the patrol team and that some dangerous weapons were recovered from them including; two locally made pistols; two live cartridges; two expanded cartridges; two daggers and one cutlass. Meanwhile, Justice Ishaq Bello has adjourned the matter for today for further hearing.
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Apo Six: DCP Danjuma attempted to escape, says prosecution From Lillian Okenwa in Abuja, 06.09.2006 Friday, June 9, 2006
An Abuja High Court was yesterday stunned when the prosecution counsel handling the murder of six Igbo traders by the Police last year in Abuja told the court that key suspect in the murder trial, Deputy Commissioner of Police Danjuma Ibrahim, twice attempted to escape from police custody.
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In addition, the prosecution claimed that the same Ibrahim had made several unsuccessful efforts to break into the file cabinet of the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) who investigated the case with the view to damaging evidence already compiled against him.
Chief Chris Uche (SAN) while opposing the bail application filed by Ibrahim yesterday in Abuja, insisted that if the suspect was granted bail, not only will the lives of all witnesses in the case be in jeopardy, but "the accused will surely abscond and will be seen no more". Marshalling arguments to buttress his opposition to the bail application, Uche advanced seven reasons why the court should not consider granting bail to Ibrahim.
According to him, "on two occasions, the first accused (Ibrahim) attempted to escape from the Force Headquarters while he was being detained there last year. On the first occasion, as deposed to by the IPO, he (Ibrahim) had perfected plans to escape with his friend, the Divisional Police Officer of Garki Police Station, Alhaji Abdulsalam Othman (the second accused), still at large but the plot was foiled when a red alert was raised that Othman had escaped.
"On the second attempt, he claimed he wanted to pray in an adjourning room to the place where he was detained only for him (Ibrahim) to escape through the lifts into a car with tinted glasses and was intercepted at the gate of the Force Headquarters.
"We also have evidence that as soon as he committed the murder, he then planned to travel out of the country with his entire family members. We have submitted three documents to prove these escape plots.
My Lord, which the accused person submitted to this court himself and we shall use them to prove this case.
"In the exhibits filed on October 19, by the accused person, particularly exhibits C and D, it will be shown that they (the documents) were made after the offence for which he is being tried had been committed.
"The Visa application he tendered was also not based on any medical ground as he claims he is sick and required to travel abroad for treatment. If he had any reason to travel for medical reason, it would have been so disclosed.
"In paragraph 34 of the purpose for the Visa, the first accused (Ibrahim), said he is traveling with everybody in his family and this shows that he had no reason of coming back to this country.
"My Lord, in the face of the second accused (Othman) still being at large, the first accused will follow suit and is not likely to come back to face trial ," Uche contended.
The prosecution counsel advanced more reasons as to why he opposed the bail application, stressing that the accused will interfere with both the evidence assembled so far as well as hamper the lives of the witnesses in the case. "My Lord, since there is an affidavit on oath by one of the accused persons, the sixth accused precisely, showing the interference and threats by the Ist accused, compelling him to comply with him to perfect his evidence, the pressure show in that affidavit is such that the sixth accused has to be relocated from where the first accused is kept in Kuje Prisons.
"Also, the 1st to 5th accused witnesses, all police officers, told this court that the 1st accused compelled them to change their statements (all subordinate officers), to suppress the truth in this matter.
"Evidence of Police Corporal Amos Musa showed that the 1st accused had threatened to deal with them if they did not change their statements. Also, one Police Constable Anthony Idam, who was to give evidence to the Police Administrative Panel headed by Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) Mike Okiro, was poisoned the night preceding the day he was to give evidence.
"There was an attempt to break into the drawers of the IPO handling this case so as to destroy al the evidence in this case. We have also shown that the accused in a very influential, very wealthy and connected persona and has what it takes to intimidate witnesses, " he added.
He noted that both the Prison authorities and National Hospital, Abuja, had written to the court stating that they have the facilities to handle what ever ailment the accused may complain of.
Uche further averred that persons facing trial which upon conviction are not normally granted bail, and substantiated the postion with several sections of both the constitution and the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).
He emphaissed that bail for an accused facing murder trial is outlawed by section 341 (1) of the CPC, adding that section 35 (4) of the 1999 constitution relied upon by the 1st accused to seek bail is neither relevant nor applicable in this matter.
Ibrahim along with CSP Othman, still at large, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Nicholas Zakariah, police Corporal Emmanuel Baba and Ezekiel Achenje as well as Police Constable Sadiq Salami are facing trial for allegedly killing Messrs Chinedu Meniru, Ifeanyi Ozor, Anthony Nwokike, Isaac Ekne, Paulinus Ogbonna and Augustina Arebun as well as
Police Constable Anthony Idam.. The incident took place a year ago at Gimbiya Street, Area eleven, Abuja.
One year after the killing of six youths by some policemen in Apo, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, their families have called for speedy trial of those implicated in the act.
The brother to one of the deceased, Mr. Elvis Ozor, said at a memorial service in honour of the youths that the urge for speedy trial became necessary because "justice delayed is justice denied."
"We are not trying to teach the judiciary its job but we know as well that justice delayed is justice denied. There have been a series of adjournments of the case. We want to know the fate of those who killed our brothers. We want justice to prevail," he said.
The Chairman, Apo Traders Association, Mr. Mortimer Ihejirika, said the vacuum left by the victims of the police brutality could not be filled.
"We miss them dearly. There can never be another Ifeanyi, Paul, Ekene or Chinedu," he said.
Family members and friends of the slain youths mounted a banner and six cards where the youths were gunned down close to Syndicate Plaza, Gimbiya Street, Area 11, Abuja.
THE PUNCH, Friday June 09, 2006
___________________ Feel me? Ofu onye ana asi unu abia go. - Ednut Igbo-American . www.airamericaradio.com visit her. Posts: 2447 | From: Mother Earth | Registered: Mar 2001
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