Another Life Cut Short After Police Officer's Careless and Drunken Shooting.

In yet another case of police brutality, news have surfaced that a drunken squad member of a unit of the Nigerian Police force in Lagos shot one Mr Eze Okoro, a 46 year-old man right in front of his house at no 1, Oguntolu St, Ijaiye, Ojokoro.

A source revealed that, the Police man who is a member of the Special Anti Robbery Squad had been drinking in a nearby hotel for more than 6 hours, shot the man and took the body away in a bid to cover his tracks and then dumped the body in a mortuary. If you live in Nigeria, this would not come as a surprise to you because these Special Anti Robbery Squad are very effective when they start their work and later resolve to violence against ordinary innocent civilians.
The policemen took him to Yaba after the Ikeja mortuary officials insisted that before his body could be deposited there, they must fill certain forms, which they refused.

According to Okoro’s wife, Mrs Ugo Okoro, her husband, who is a businessman, returned from work on the fateful day, and because there was no electricity supply, they went and relaxed in front of their house to enjoy some breeze before going to sleep.

She said their family friend, Chinedu Nwanu and his wife, Nneka Nwanu, who is heavily pregnant, also joined them outside.

Ugo said it was not up to five minutes after she left them and went into their apartment that she heard gun shots and the residents started running in all directions.

She said while the commotion was going on, she heard her husband, who was wearing a pair of shorts and simple shirt, shouting that he was not a robber and was explaining to the policemen that he was just relaxing in front of his house.

“Nneka also fell down and started shouting that she was pregnant and showing the police her husband who was beside her. She was allowed to leave with her husband and one of the policemen shot my husband in the waist and he died on the spot,” Ugo narrated.

Sources told P.M.NEWS that the team of policemen had arrived a popular hotel in the area beside Okoro’s house in a Sienna bus with registration number KJA 280 BD and were drinking heavily in the hotel from 4p.m. till 10 p.m. before the incident happened.

Police sources claimed that the man was shot in error during a gun battle with armed robbers in the hotel, a claim disproved by Okoro’s wife and relatives.

Even the hotel management told P.M.NEWS that there was no shootout between the police and robbers as claimed by the police and that they did not know their mission in the area that day.

The hotel sources, who pleaded for anonymity, said they only noticed the unusual presence of policemen which caused panic in their hotel.

The source said it was later that they heard gun shots outside and residents including workers of the hotel started running for safety and that after some time, he got to know that they had shot and killed Okoro.

He insisted that there was no robbery incident in the area that day.

Okoro’s younger brother, Innocent, said he was informed about what happened and he immediately contacted other members of the family and they started searching from one police station to another for his corpse.

He said they went to many police stations and commands and to their greatest surprise, they all denied having anything to do with the incident.

Innocent said the search lasted for three days and there was no information whatsoever before they contacted a top police officer who made the police to open up.

He said the police then asked him to go to Yaba mortuary and search for Okoro’s corpse. And when he got there he discovered that the corpse was dumped there as an unidentified corpse.

He said the corpse was brought back to Ikeja General Hospital mortuary where he filled the necessary documents.

Innocent expressed shock about what happened and the way the police treated the whole matter by not even contacting the family because they knew he was an innocent resident they killed for no reason.

He also told P.M.NEWS that “the police admitted that Okoro was killed in error and asked us to come forward with the elders of the family.”

The late Okoro hailed from Imo State. He had a son called Divine.

Meanwhile the Officer In Charge of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Superintendent of Police, Abba Kyari, has claimed that it was armed robbers that shot Okoro while they were trying to escape during an exchange of gunfire with the police.


Source: PM News