The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has called on the police authority to investigate and prosecute one Inspector Obi Ebri and other policemen attached to the Area Command, Asaba, Delta State.
CAPPA made the call in a press release issued in respect of the alleged extra-judicial killing of one Ibe Emmanuel Onyeka in the state capital.
Inspector Ebri and the other unnamed police officers were said to be on an illegal patrol on Thursday, when they allegedly shot and killed Onyeka, 31-year-old phone seller.
CAPPA, in the press release by its Director of Programmes, Philip Jakpor, also asked the Police to implement the Police Reforms to avoid a repeat of the #EndSARS protest of 2020.
According to reports, Onyeka was in company of his pregnant wife, who he married just three months ago, when he was shot point-blank in the head for failing to give the police officers a bribe of just N100.
The deceased was reportedly subsequently rushed to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Asaba, where he was confirmed dead.
The incident was said to have occurred around the Ugbolu area within the Asaba metropolis of the state.
This resulted in a protest march by youths from Ogbogonogo Market who took the corpse from the FMC, Asaba, to the Police Headquarters, demanding for justice.
The state Commissioner of Police, Mr Ari Mohammed Ali, who reportedly confirmed the development, said the alleged killer police inspector has been arrested, alongside other members of the team.
However , CAPPA, in the release, described the murder of Onyeka as one extrajudicial killing too many and asked the Police to go a step further to stop extra-judicial killings by law enforcement agents.
It noted that the same pattern of police brutality and extra-judicial murders that led to the #EndSARS nationwide protests in 2020 are still rife across the country “as officers of the Nigeria Police continue to murder innocent civilians unchecked.
“We find it very disturbing that these barbaric acts continue despite the outcry of Nigerians.
“Another promising young Nigerian has been gunned down, barely four months after the killing of a lawyer, Bolanle Raheem, by police in Ajah area of Lagos.
“We are alarmed that our security agencies, which have remained largely docile in the face of bandits across the country, have come out in full force against those they have sworn to protect.
“It is shameful and totally reprehensible. This sad and shameful incident reopens old wounds.
“We use this opportunity to demand the prosecution of the identified officers and compensation for the family of the slain businessman.”
CAPPA, while stating that the prosecution of the alleged killer policemen and a compensation cannot replace the lost life, said such would serve as justice.
“Unfortunately, that can never be adequate justice, as nothing can replace the life that has been gruesomely cut short. However, let that be a token of justice.
“We also re-echo our demand for a total overhaul of the police structure which currently views innocent citizens as prey rather than partners in tackling insecurity in the country.
“We are demanding that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Usman Alkali Baba, immediately implement the recommendations of the judicial panel of inquiry that probed the #EndSARS protests as a means of ending extra judicial killings by police officers.
“One of the recommendations after the EndSARS protest was the need to subject police officers, especially those handling firearms, to psychological/psychiatric evaluation to ensure that they are mentally capable of discharging their statutory duties effectively.
“Another is the proposal that electronic surveillance equipment like close circuit cameras, dashboard cameras and body-worn cameras be deployed to keep policemen under constant monitoring to end the seemingly intractable investigation of extra-judicial killings.
“Only the implementation of these recommendations to the letter will put a check to the incessant killings perpetrated by policemen in homes and on our roads.
“It was Bolanle Raheem yesterday. It is Emmanuel Onyeka today. Who knows whose turn it will be tomorrow?
“Now is the time for the government to stop sloganeering and take concrete actions,” CAPPA stated in the press release.
