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Edo Speaker condems Police extra Judicial killings

     Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Engr. Victor Sabor Edoror, has condemned the way and manner the security agencies in the state extrajudicially kill people in the state.

He made this condemnation when the Conference of Non-Governmental Organisations (CONGO’s Edo State), staged a protest to Edo State House of Assembly over the death (in the custody of the Nigeria Police) of Mr. Benson Obode, a 26 years old man who hails from Ubierumu Oke, Uromi in Esan North East local government area of Edo State.

The Speaker, who berated the high rate of Police extra judicial killings in Edo state in particular, and Nigeria in general, also said; ‘in as much as we totally frown at the rate at which people commit crimes in the state, it is also wrong for the police to take the laws into their hands without following the due process…’

The President of the organisation, who was also the spokesperson, Mr Obasanmi Jude, said; ‘we are here to bring to your notice, the extra judicial killing by the Police, of Mr. Benson Obode, a native of Ubierumu Oke Uromi, in Esan North East local government area of Edo state’. He went on to say that police extra judicial killings is today, becoming too rampant as such, urgent and pragmatic measures need be taken to check the ugly trend.

One of the deceased brother, Mr. Obode Solomon gave a synopsis of how his late brother was aressted by men and officers of SARS From Ikeja Lagos and assisted by SARS attached to the office of the Commissioner of Police, Edo State Police Command, Benin City, on Thursday, 21 st of May, from the deceased home at Ohovba Quarters, Ikpoba Hill, Benin city, on allegation that he bought a stolen vehicle.

According to Mr Solomon, all attempts made by them to reach the deceased failed, only for them to discover that the deceased died while in custody of the Police. The Police, according to the protest letter titled; ‘Extra Judicial killings of people in Edo State by men of the Nigeria Police: request for Justice and Prosecution’, a copy of which was submitted to the Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly, stated that information was received by the family that the deceased died after a mob attack. Several questions that the CONGOs are demanding answers to, are: where and when did the mob attack take place? How comes the Police denied the family access to late Benson only to break the news of his death on July, 24, 2015, two months after his arrest? Why was he not charged to court? Who were the complainants, and how comes they have not shown up all these while?

In their prayers, CONGOs requested that men and officers that are involved in the gruesome murder of an enterprising young man, should be brought to book and that an independent autopsy be conducted to reveal the remote cause of the death of Mr. Benson.

It could however be recalled that, sometime in 2014, at Ikpoba Hill in Benin City, Edo State, an armed policeman attached to a convoy shot and killed a bus conductor, and when the reality of what he did dawned on him, he shot sporadically into the air and escaped being lynched by the angry mob. He was however later apprehended, arrested and prosecuted. But the bottom line is that, the dead is already dead.

Again, on May 27, 2013 a final year student of the University of Benin, Ibrahim Momodu was allegedly shot dead by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) Mrs. Carol Afegbai of Ogida Police Station, Edo State, and other members of her patrol team. Helloooooo? What is the result of the investigation? The deceased, Ibrahim Momodu, was alleged to have attempted to shoot at the police, but autopsy report revealed that he was shot on the back and the bullet ripped through his heart.