THE issue of accidental and extra-judicial killing again has once again pitted the police in Edo State against family members, students, friends and associates of 22 year-old 400 level student of Science Laboratory Technology student of the University of Benin, Ibrahim Momodu who was allegedly shot dead by the police over allegations that he was in possession of guns and ammunition and riding an unregistered motorcycle on Monday night, May 27.
But his colleagues and mates have raised many queries: one, on why he was hurriedly buried on Tuesday morning and the family only got to know on Wednesday. They also asked why the police who were with his mobile phone never picked repeated calls to his number and then later switched off the phone.
Momodu was said to be coming from GRA to Siluko road when he was allegedly shot by the Divisional Police Officer of Ogida Police Station, Carol Afegbai around Textile mill Road junction, a stone throw from his house at No.1 Igbobawaye Street, off Siluko road when he was stopped by policemen on patrol.
The controversy is that nobody knows what transpired between Momodu and the police before he was shot as the police insisted that he was attempting to remove a gun from a small bag he was carrying when the leader of the patrol team, Afegbai, allegedly opened fire on him, a position his friends strongly contest, relying on the fact that the said police officer was notorious for high-handedness, even as they alleged that she had shot another victim a day earlier within the same vicinity.
Police sources however, told The Guardian yesterday that it was not the DPO that actually pulled the trigger that killed Momodu but a constable. It was also gathered that the police authorities might have redeployed the DPO.
This development created a near breakdown of law and order as family members, friends and associates of Momodu protested his alleged killing by the police.
The protesters with several banners and anti-police inscriptions marched through the Oba Ovonmramwen Square popularly called Ring Road and this led to traffic gridlock on the adjoining Sapele, Akpakava and Airport roads, which spilled over to the GRA.
Speaking to journalists at the Secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), the elder sister of the deceased, Rebecca Egbe while calling for justice, wondered why the police brutally cut the life of his brother short.
“ I was in my office in Port Harcourt when I received a call from Benin from a cousin of mine who is a police officer, saying what he wanted to tell me that I should take heart that we lost Ibrahim my younger brother. I called my mother and she said they had been looking for him in the last two days. Normally it is after 48 hours that you report such thing to the police.
“So, she went to the Police on the May 29, 2013, only to be told that he had been killed by Carol Afegbai, the DPO of Ogida Police station and was buried the next day without contacting the family. His cell-phone, which was with the police ranged all through as we were trying to locate his whereabouts; until the police finally picked the call and asked my mother to come to the police station.
When the DPO was confronted and asked why his men shot my brother, she explained that they didn’t know his identity because his men asked him to stop and he refused, alleging that he was carrying a gun and wanted to shoot at his men on patrol before his men shot at him in self defence.”
The family, according to the sister of the slain student, was informed that the body of Momodu had been buried at a public cemetery in Egor Local Council Area of the state.
Also yesterday, the National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS) gave a seven-day ultimatum to the police authority to remove and probe the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Ogida Police Station, Carol Afegbai, who allegedly pulled the trigger that killed Momodu.
A statement yesterday by the president of the association, Sunday Ogbonnaya, also demanded that the body of Momodu be exhumed for proper autopsy. “We observed that Carol Afegbai is still walking freely, we will mobilise our students and demand for justice. We also demand that the commissioner of police pay a condolence visit to the family of Momodu and we vehemently demand that his body be exhumed for proper autopsy to aid investigation.”
In response to the outcry, the state governor, Adams Oshiomhole, said a commission of enquiry would be set up to look into what actually happened.
This decision was made known when the governor, Adams Oshiomhole met with the mother of Momodu, friends and counsel, Jeff Uwoghiren who submitted a petition demanding for justice.
The governor said, “what happened is very unfortunate. Anything that leads to death other than through a judicial pronouncement, as a government we will not tolerate. However, the police have offered their own explanation to us, which is different from the narration by the students and the statement from the family.
“The only thing all the sides agree on is that Momodu was shot and killed. That is not in dispute but what is in dispute is why he was so killed. Whether the police killed in self-defence or was he killed because someone was trigger happy…
According to him, “every story has more than one side, particularly when it is of this nature.
What we can do as a government is to try to establish the facts and have an open mind. I have listened to the statement made by the mother of Momodu and I understand how she feels, myself being a father, everyone of us readily imagines the pain in her heart.”