Family raises dust, accuses
police of shielding suspect, a
dismissed staff of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, who
allegedly shot dead a 22-year-old secondary school leaver, Douglas Ochaga Ojugbo,
on March 10, for hitting it off with his daughter.
The NNPC
staff claimed that he thought the victim was a robber. However, family of the
deceased described the claim by the police and their son’s killer as a rooster
and bull story.
Mother of
the slain boy, Mrs. Maria Ogar Ojugbo, a director at the Fishery Unit, Ministry
of Agriculture, Calabar, told Niger Delta Voice that her son went to collect
money for a mini-notebook he sold to the man’s daughter, Mercy, when the
assailant killed him.
Father of
the deceased, Mr. Ogar Ojugbo, in a petition to the Inspector General of Police,
said his son was not a robber and that the former NNPC staff killed him in cold
blood because he was having an amorous relationship with his daughter. He
asserted: “My son is 22 years old. Sometime this year, he sold his used
mini-laptop to the daughter of the suspect, who leaves with him at his River
Basin Authority home. The daughter made a part payment of the agreed sum
leaving a balance.
“My son
had been visiting the home of the suspect to collect or recover the balance of
his money. The suspect, not pleased with the boy’s presence, inquired or
demanded to know what he was doing in his house. “My son tried to explain to
him his transaction with his daughter. Without any effort to verify the boy’s
story, he asked him to leave his house and warned him never to visit his house
again.
“My son
was about leaving when his daughter asked my son to come on March 10 and
collect the balance of his money. On the said day, my son went to the house
hoping to see his daughter as they agreed, but unfortunately he saw the
suspect.
“The
suspect, on sighting my son, ran into his room and fetched his gun. Douglas, on
sighting him with a gun, took to his heels to save his life. “However, having
made up his mind to kill my son, he pursued him until he caught up with him at
the gate of Basin Authority, a distance of a kilometre from his house. “He shot
my son first on the leg as a result of which Douglas fell down and to
accomplish his goal, he shot him the second time on the arm to make sure that
my son is dead.
“Furthermore,
the suspect having accomplished his goal bundled the body of the late Douglas
into a police van and took same to the Divisional Police Officer of Federal
Housing Police station. “He conspired with the police to get rid of the body of
Douglas in order to conceal his death.”
When
Niger Delta Voice visited the Federal Housing Police Station, the DPO, Mr. Mike
Ezeweren opened up: “I got a call from one of my patrol officers, who said an
armed robbery suspect was being brought in. “I called the control unit
informing them that a suspect was apprehended at the Basin Authority area. When
the patrol team came, I saw somebody at the back of the pick-up van and they
brought him down.
“Under
such circumstance, when a suspected armed robber is killed, we heave a sigh of
relief because we refer to the deceased as minus one. They brought along with
him some iron bender and a locally-made pistol and told me an angry mob seized
him. The suspect was there with the mob. “He said he was in his compound, a
twin flat, when he heard dog barking from the other end and that when he sought
to find out why the dog was barking, he saw someone rushing out from the
sitting room of the other flat.
“He said
the suspect (Douglas) threatened him with the machete he was holding, but he
retreated to his flat and brought out his double-barrelled gun with which he
shot the suspect. “He said after the shooting, the suspect still managed to
scale through the fence in a bid to escape but when people around heard the
shout of thief, they responded and pursued him, brought him down and continued
battering him before they even called the police.
“At that
point, I sought to know the boy’s identity but nobody knew him in which case it
was an unidentified corpse. I then told my men to take the statement from the
suspect, who acted on self-defense, after which I contacted the health
authorities to come and convey the corpse out of our premises. “The corpse was
unidentified and besides I cannot raise N35,000 to deposit in the mortuary for
an unidentified corpse. Under what sub-head will I even tag that money or do
they expect me to use my salary? “It was that reason that made me to call the
health authorities to go and dispose of it in their own way.”
Police
know nothing about boyfriend/girlfriend affair
The DPO
also said: “I do not know anything about this issue of girlfriend and
boyfriend. The man said the boy came to rob in one of his flats with iron bar
and threatened him with it. “Therefore, it was a case of robbery; it was even
the mob that first said the man shot the boy and the man later confirmed that
he actually shot the boy. “If there is anything in the matter, they should not
face the police, they should face the man that shot him and the man is not on
the run.”
On the
hasty burial of Douglas, the DPO said: “Where do you expect me to keep the
corpse when I do not have the financial backup to send the body to mortuary? We
have health authority that we call upon at any time to dispose unidentified
corpse. “Where they would have faulted me is if someone had come to identify
the corpse and I still went ahead to the health authorities to bury the corpse.
I did not follow the health authorities to where they took the corpse.
“We
normally call them to come and dispose corpses, especially unidentified ones.
At every point in this whole encounter, I communicated with the Commissioner of
Police and also sent signals.”
A
neighbour of the suspect told Niger Delta Voice that the suspect’s daughter,
Mercy, and Douglas were friends and the suspect had warned Douglas a number of
times to stop coming to his house before the tragedy. The neigbour said: “The
man had warned the boy not to come near the daughter again, but the two of them
could not keep away from each other and we hear that it was because of the
relationship between the boy and the girl that the man decided to take that
horrible action.
“On that
fateful afternoon, we saw the man running after the boy, who was panting and
running but the man caught up with him around the Basin Authority gate and shot
him with a gun. “After shooting him, he called the police that he had shot an
armed robber. All of us were running for our dear lives because the man is dangerous
and everyone around knows him for that.”
VANGUARDNGR
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