Exclusive: Here’s how police treats officer accused of killing bereaved Abia man

This young man, hours after losing his father, was reportedly shot in the head multiple times by a Nigerian police officer.

The man hails from Abala in Obinggwa LGA, Abia State, where the forced tragedy happened this at about 12 noon on Wednesday.

Here’s what state police spokesperson, Onyeke Udeviotu Ezekiel, told NewsroomNG they’re doing about the case:

It is a very unfortunate incident. The police IG has taken a stance that the weapons given to policemen by Nigeria is for the protection of Nigerians and not for the killing of innocent Nigerians. And when any policeman turns round to use those weapons against innocent citizens, that policeman will be made to bear the full force of the law.

And that is what we’re doing here. Yes, it happened. The policeman, Corporal Patrick Kalu, was armed somewhere in Aba and he intersected this motorcycle. There is a ban on motorcycles in Umuahia and Aba. This was because criminals were using this motorcycle as a quick means of getting away from crime scenes. They were using bikes to perpetrate evil – kidnapping, armed robbery and the like. So there is a law prohibiting the use of motorcycles in Aba and Umuahia and these policemen saw these two people on a bike and flagged them down.

Somehow, the boy (the victim) who took his father to the mortuary, was shot by a policeman.

I don’t want to say it is accidental but if you have the blow-by-blow account of what happened, it was almost accidental. But I don’t believe that there is anything like accidental discharge. The time he cocked his rifle was not when he pulled the trigger, according to eyewitnesses. He cocked the rifle long before he shot the young man.

By the time he pulled the trigger, he had no intention of shooting but that doesn’t exonerate him. That is not an excuse because every policeman is trained to handle a gun. And when you cock a rifle and you discover that you have not need to shoot, you remove your magazine and remove the ammunition from the rifle’s chambers so as to avoid this kind of incident.

Here’s what we have done so far, the CP (Commissioner of Police) ordered an immediate arrest of the suspect on Wednesday (same day the tragedy occurred). And by 2:00 a.m. on Thursday, the principal suspect was arrested, and taken into custody. The CP has his seat in Umuahia but he had to move to Aba on Thursday to ensure the suspect was being tried. We are carrying out administrative measure against the suspect to make sure that he’s properly tried. We want to see the level of his culpability.

If he’s found wanting, he’ll be arraigned before the ordinary court of the law of the land to face the music. That is what we’re doing. The CP was there, personally, yesterday (Thursday). He actually spoke with the press at the venue of the trial. The press saw that the man has been arraigned for trial. It’s a close-door, equivalent of court martial done in the Army. It’s after this he can be arraigned before a judge for whatever offence he’s found to have committed.

So that is the stage we are now. The closed-door trial should have been round off on Thursday and the man must be in court today (Friday). I’m yet to hear from the DPO if it has been concluded. After this call, I’m going to call the DPO whether the closed-door trial has been concluded and to find out the next step.

But so fat so good, the police condemned the act. The CP even condoled with the family of the victim. We even invited them to the venue of the trial because we want them to know we are being transparent about this issue. The commissioner invited them and sent a vehicle to bring the immediate family of the victim to witness the trial. Some of them actually testified against the suspect. As soon as it is over, the whole world will know what the police have done about it.

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