Police murders young Emmanuel

15 year old Master Emmanuel Egbo has, lamentably, made the growing lift of victims of police extra-judicial killings in Enugu state, Nigeria.

Master Egbo was, September 25 last year, murdered in cold blood in front of his cousin‘s residence while playing with other children in Atakwu community, Nkanu West council area of Enugu state. But as usual, the killer police officer, and, indeed, the top command of the force in the state, have branded the ill-fated lad an armed robber to cover up his murder. (Picture left shows slain Master Emmanuel; Right is Inspector-General of Police, Mike Okiro)

Emmanuel, KlinReports learnt, was playing and chatting with other children in front of the house around 6pm on the fateful day when, two passing-by policemen, for inexplicable reasons, pounced on the kids, and started beating them. In the course of this beating, one of the cops reportedly opened fire and shot young Emmanuel dead.

The policemen were among those deployed to restore peace to Attakwu and its neighborhood following lingering communal crises in the communities. After the murder, the killer cop raced up to his colleagues where they camped to report that he had killed an armed robber. Some of his colleagues, later, accompanied him to a vehicle where he kept the boy’s body. The policemen later conveyed the corpse of the deceased to the Divisional Police Headquarters, Agbani in Nkanu West Local Government Area.

Chief M.A Ngene (JP), a prominent indigene of Atakwu community, says the murdered Emmanuel, an apprentice carpenter, was his nephew, and insists that he neither engaged in stealing nor armed robbery. Eye witnesses, also, testify against the gruesome murder of the innocent and helpless teenager, maintaining that he was killed without provocation.

At the Special Anti Robbery Squad office, Enugu, where the case was later transferred, the Investigating Police Officer (IPO), Inspector Ugwueze was told by some eye witnesses that it was Chief Gregory Ugwu (alias Ochinanwata) who directed the policeman to attack the teenage Emmanuel while he was playing with other children in front of his cousin’s residence. Ugwu is one of the parties in the crises in Atakwu community. But Ugwu could not be reached to react to this allegation.

Unfortunately, police authorities have refused to even question the killer cop for the murder of Emmanuel, as the Investigating Police Officer continues to provide an alibi to the deceased family that the killer policemen has refused to honor invitation for investigation.

The matter assumed a curious twist on May 5 this year when the Officer in Charge of the Special Anti Robbery Squad, Stephen Osaghae (DSP), announced to the deceased family that the corpse of their son had been disposed off, claiming that he was an armed robber. The deceased family had gone to the SARS office to know how far the police has gone in its investigation of Emmanuel’s extra-judicial killing.

DSP Osaghae, further, told the slain boy’s family that the killer cop is unknown, decreeing that the case is, therefore, closed.

But a Non Government Organization, Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) insists that Emmanuel is a victim of police extra-judicial murder, and demands justice in his cold-blooded murder.

‘The boy was killed in broad daylight in front of his house, he was not arrested with any weapon, unless Stephen Osaghae, the SARS’ Officer, will go and scout for one‘, CLO states in a petition over the murder, signed by its Southeast zonal director, Barrister Olu Omotayo.

The body thus demands immediate release of Emmanuel’s remains to his family for decent burial, as well as arrest and prosecution of the killer cop.

Will justice be done in the murder of young Emmanuel? Or will his go the way of other unresolved killings in Nigeria?