“My friend led the police team that killed my son” – aggrieved father
Public opinion stands that most policemen are sloppy and carefree in the course of their duties. That’s probably why Daniel Kokorifa who claims his policeman friend killed his son is insisting on getting justice.
Late Innocent Kokorifa was reportedly shot dead on the 18th of August by a police team in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State while running an errand for his mother.
The senior Kokorifa, an official of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Rivers State Sector Command, said his son was murdered by a team led by his friend.
He spoke on Monday when some human rights activists, led by a former Secretary, Civil Liberties Organisation, Mr. Alagoa Morris, paid a condolence visit to his home in the Okaka area of Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.
Innocent, who was first of five children, was allegedly shot dead by the police anti-kidnapping team on Air Force Road in Yenagoa on August 18, 2016.
However, the state police command has, in a statement, claimed that the victim died during a gun battle between a three-man robbery gang and the police.
But the victim’s father, Daniel, however, said upon investigation, he discovered that Innocent was killed by a police team led by his own friend.
He explained that his son died on the day his West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination results were released wherein he passed all his papers.
Daniel said he and his wife went to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department the day his son was killed but they denied knowledge of the incident. The anti-vice unit and they also denied. he said that it was at the scene of the incident he discovered that it was the anti-vice team that came for the operation.
“The following morning, I went to the anti-vice team again, but they denied knowledge of it. I saw a friend, who worked there. When I asked him, he also denied any knowledge of it. But I later discovered that it was my friend, who led the team, that killed my son.” he said
Daniel further said he went to the Emergency Ward at the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, in search of his son. There, he was told that the police brought the boy in the night around 11:00 p.m., the doctors said the boy was brought dead.
“That was how I knew my son was dead. I went inside the mortuary with my son’s picture and my ID card before they allowed me in. I saw his lifeless body in the morgue.”
Mr. Daniel claimed that from birth, his late son had never had any criminal record. Now that he is dead. All I demand is justice,” he added.
The victim’s mother, Pere, said she asked him to give N2,000 to her elder sister’s daughter around 10:00 p.m. on the day of the incident.
She started searching for him when he didn’t return on time.
“We went to hospitals and police stations, but they all denied knowing the whereabouts of my son. The following day, when my husband returned from Port-Harcourt where he works, we went to the SCIID and they asked me to write a statement that it was bad boys that killed my son, so that they could investigate the matter, but I refused.”
Ebiserikumo Gbassa, an activist described the development as an extra-judicial killing and said the police had ended the life of a promising youth. He appealed to all relevant authorities to ensure that the killers of the innocent boy are brought to book.
When contacted, the spokesman for the police command in the state, Mr. Asinim Butswat, said the police were investigating the matter.
However, the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations, Amiengheme Andy, last Friday, sympathised with the family of the deceased.
Andy had said, “We do not encourage such things. We all have children and nobody will send anyone out to shoot anybody and anyone who does that will pay dearly for it.
He assured the family that nobody would cover up the matter.
