Report reaching EKWEANAEDO has it that some police officers have beaten a 28-year-old man to death in Asaba, Delta State.
The incident, it was gathered, happened during a recent encounter between the victim and some operatives of the Delta State Police Command who reportedly tortured and hit him with gun butt, resulting in severe damage and pains on different parts of his body, especially his head where they hit him repeatedly with the gun butt.
According to reports, the victim, identified as Emeka Okediachi, later died in the hospital where he was taken to for medical attention.
Recounting how it happened, a brother to the deceased, Mr. Desmond Okediachi, said the incident happened at the Ogbe-Osowe quarters in Asaba.
His words: “On the 14th of November, between about 12am to 1am, my brother and his friends were coming from the Chronicles Hotel, very close to Slot. They saw men who were not wearing uniform who stopped them but they didn’t stop because they thought they were kidnappers.
“My brother, his friend and his girlfriend who were in the car ran to a spot where the police cornered them. They started shooting sporadically and started beating them. My brother’s girlfriend ran into her own house because where they ran to was close to her house.
“People who wanted to help them could not because of the sporadic shooting and because the police used wood on them. So, no one could help them.
“I didn’t know what happened till the next morning when I saw my brother with a bandaged head. When I asked him what happened, he told me that he was hit on the head with a gun by some police officers. He said that the officers, after doing this took him to hospital and got his head bandaged. They took his phone too.
“They came back in the morning and asked him to do a video that he hit his head on the wall while running from the police and that that was how he injured himself. They also collected N150,000 from him.”
Continuing Desmond said: “When I heard all these from my brother, I was very angry and followed him to the Police Headquarters in Asaba. When we got there, he showed me the person that hit him on the head and during the melee, they took him upstairs, and I stayed downstairs.
“The police said we should be thankful that at least he was not killed, and that instead, we should take him to hospital for treatment.
“When we took him to hospital; at some point, he wouldn’t talk well and we were told that he damaged his jaw when the police officers were beating him. At some point, he complained of back pain and we tried treating him.
“My mum called me after some days and said he was jerking, we took him to one hospital and they rejected him, it was at the second hospital that they pronounced him dead.”
Desmond also described as a lie from the pit of hell, the claims by the police that his brother hit his head on the wall, adding that he has enough pictures to prove that he was hit on the head with gun butt, and never hit head on the wall as the police claimed. He also wondered how possible or credible it even sounds that his brother would hit different parts of his head and his face on the wall .
“I have pictures to show that he was hit in the head and he didn’t hit his head on the wall as the people claimed,” Desmond stated.
Reacting to the incident, Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, Bright Edafe said the Command was aware of the incident, but, however, denied that Emeka was hit with a gun by the police officers involved. He maintained that the victim hit his head on the wall.
According to him, “On the 14th of November 2024, at about 0100 hours, the Command received a distress call from a concerned citizen that there were some suspicious-looking persons around the DBS Road.”
“Operatives of the Command were detailed to move to the scene; and the operatives who were at that time along Nnebisi Road, proceeded to the scene. On their way, they sighted a Venza SUV with reg. No GWK-646-FF; but the occupants of the vehicle, on noticing there were policemen, zoomed off.
“The operatives, who were already acting on a distress call, suspected the Venza Vehicle; hence they went after them. They chased them to a compound along the Nnebisi axis. The passengers alighted and were running in a bid to escape from the police.
“The driver was arrested immediately while the deceased initially escaped. A few minutes later right there at the scene, the suspect came out with blood on his head and stated that he hit his head on a wall. The police swiftly took him to the hospital and paid for his medical bill. At about 0500 hours of the same date, the deceased was brought to the Police Headquarters where statements were recorded, and the deceased stated in his statement that he hit his head on a wall fence while running away from the police.”
The Police Image Maker, however, noted that the State Commissioner of Police had ordered investigation into circumstances surrounding the incident, assuring that the officers involved would be made to face the full weight of the law, if found culpable or guilty of the allegations.
“The Commissioner of Police has however ordered the Deputy Commissioner of Police State Criminal Investigation department to take over the case and ensure that a thorough investigation is carried out.
“The CP while condoling the family of the deceased assures them that no stone will be left unturned and that if the operatives are found culpable, they will be made to face the law,” the Police Spokesman concluded.
This reporter, Izunna Okafor, gathered that, Mr. Okediachi, prior to his death, was working as watchman at the Customary Court, Judges Quarters, Asaba, and would mark his turn 29th birthday on 27th December this year, before his sudden death.
Lending his voice, an elder brother to the victim, Mr. Ifeanyi Okedinachi, who described his Emeka’s death as disheartening, further called for the intervention of the Inspector-General of Police and other relevant authorities, to ensure that thorough investigation is conducted into the matter and justice served, while the officers involved are held accountable and made to face the consequences of their actions.
