A policeman, who killed a teenager in 2011 in Yenegoa, the Bayelsa State capital, is to die for the offence, rules the court, reports Mike Odiegwu, Yenegoa.
Grace Victor could not understand what she got from the judiciary on Tuesday. “Could it be justice”, she murmured. In a an obviously confused state, she trudged out of the sultry courtroom in the company of the Founder, Agape Birthright Organisation, Ankio Briggs who is fondly called the Amazon of the Niger Delta region and the former Secretary of the Bayelsa State chapter of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Mr. Alagoa Morris.
Without the expected hysterics, Grace broke down in tears. But she concluded that her son Emmanuel did not after all die in vain. She remembered what happened in the state High Court, Nembe, Division a few minutes earlier. The court rested the murder case of her first son, the 20-year-old Emmanuel who was brutally killed at a police checkpoint along the Sani Abacha Expressway, Yenagoa, on October 16th, 2011.
She recalled that the court presided over by Justice Lucky Boufili just sentenced one of the ex-policemen, Mr. Matthew Egheghe, standing trial for the murder case to death by hanging. Though the judge freed Lucky Oberemelu (first accused) and John Imeh (third accused) for want of evidence and lack of prosecutorial thoroughness, she took solace in the fact that one of the suspects had to pay the supreme price.
Victor’s murder was indeed tragic. He died on a Sunday while returning from a branch of the Christ Embassy where he went for worship. It was, however, more horrifying to the murder because she witnessed the awful and atrocious killing of her son.
His offence? Victor was bold enough to condemn extortion of commercial motorcyclists by policemen at the checkpoint. He boarded one of the motorcycles popularly known as Okada after the church service and was heading home. When he approached the checkpoint, a policeman demanded N20 from the rider of the motorcycle.
But the courageous Victor said: “Oga policeman, don’t you people go to church even on Sunday. Pity this poor man now”. The brave utterance caused him his death. He was thoroughly beaten. The motorcyclist attempted to take him away from the scene of danger, but the aggrieved policeman drew him out of the bike.
He tried to run away, they pursued him ferociously but when they could not catch up with him, the leader of the team allegedly said: “Shoot him, shoot him”. Many gunshots were heard. At the end, the shattered body of Victor laid helplessly on the ground.
All the while, Grace watched impotently. She cried, wailed, but the killers remained adamant. All her efforts to stop them from killing her son proved abortive. In a dramatic fashion, the photograph of Victor’s body was taken by the police with a pair of scissors tucked to his hand.
Grace vividly recalled how her son was murdered. She narrated: “My son went to church with me. After the close of church, I came out and boarded a commercial motorcycle and, not far from where I took off, I heard gunshots. I was scared and told the motorcycle operator to stop for us to take cover.
“All of a sudden I saw my son running and being chased by the police. Police vans were parked on both sides of the road. And, when I discovered that it was my son they were chasing and about shooting, I ran towards one of the policemen close to one of the vans.
“I told him the person they were chasing was my son. I told him he was a Christian and that he just came out of the church. By this time they were cocking their guns. By the time the policeman I approached signalled his colleagues to stop, they were already shooting at my son.
“My son was holding a Bible when he was shot. I rushed, as a mother, to go and attend to him but they threatened that if I didn’t move back they would shoot me too. They made me move back. I did not see any of the policemen with any stain of blood then. But they just picked his Bible and drove off. It was another police vehicle that came and picked him.”
The murder, indeed, agitated the world. Following the media efforts, everybody except the killers condemned it. The House of Representatives held a session on it. Various houses of assembly across the country rose in vituperation against the police. Human rights community especially the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) and Agape Birthright Organisation described it as the height of man’s inhumanity to man.
International human rights groups including the Amnesty International (AI) were interested in the matter. In the spirits of the public outcry which also led to the summoning of the then Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Hilary Opara, to the National Assembly, the police were compelled to expose the killers.
The Nigerian Police Force was forced to dismiss three officers indicted for the murder. One of them, an Inspector, Mr. Lucky Obomerelu, was among those discharged from police service. Also, two corporals – Mathew Egheghe and John Imeh – were relieved of their duties too.
They were dismissed after an in-house trial conducted by the state police command indicted them for misuse of firearms. Egheghe and Imeh were dismissed by Opara. But the inspector was discharged by the then Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of Zone F, Mr. Mohammed Yusufu.
The matter was later transferred to the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) after which a murder case was filed against the suspects by the state. While the criminal proceeding was going at the state High Court Nembe Division, the family the deceased and Briggs instituted a civil proceeding against the police at the Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa.
The father of the deceased, Mr. Edet, a Staff Sergeant attached to the Joint Task Force (JTF) in Niger Delta and his mother, Grace, filed the suit in the court in Yenagoa seeking N200m as damages for the violation of Emmanuel’s right to life.
The suit was filed on their behalf by Falana & Falana Chambers, a legal firm owned by a human rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana. The suit also asked the court to make an order directing the police to investigate and prosecute the policemen who killed Emmanuel.
But the court refused to grant the reliefs. The court, presided over by Justice R.M Akawo in its ruling, said the reliefs were dependent on a pending criminal suit at the state High Court.
According to Akawo, it would amount to abuse of judicial process if the court made pronouncement on the reliefs without allowing the lower court to dispense with the criminal aspect of the matter.
Though disappointed at the outcome of the civil matter, Grace and her family including all the stakeholders in the matter waited patiently for the result of the criminal proceeding praying for justice.
Each day the criminal matter came up at the high court, drama ensued. In their separate defenses, the accused persons magnified the little Victor and painted his image as a superman who singlehandedly overpowered them with a pair of scissors which they claimed he used in stabbing them.
Their narrations were amazing and most times amusing. People found it difficult to comprehend how the diminutive Victor was able to stab giant-like policemen on their shoulders. In what many people described as a product of pure fabrication, the accused persons tried to exonerate themselves from their brutality.
Eventually, the looming judgement, after protracted legal tussle between the lawyers to the accused persons and the prosecution, came. After so much legaleese, Boufili slated Tuesday for the judgement.
When Niger Delta Report got to the court premises in the morning, suspicion heightened that the accused persons might be freed. First they were chauffeur-driven by the lawyer to the first accused person. They looked radiantly and were adorned in good attire.
When they alighted from the car, their friends and family members exchanged pleasantries with them. Congratulations, congratulations, they told them and shook hands warmly with them. It was as if the judgement had been leaked to them.
Morris, Briggs and other human rights activists including journalists were surprised at the development. But they decided to wait for the wordings and letters of the judgement. From 9am, the waiting game continued till about 1am. Eventually, Boufili came out of his chamber and sat of read his judgement.
As suspected, Lucky Oberemelu (first accused) and John Imeh (third accused) were discharged and acquitted over want of evidence. The judge predicated his ruling that lacked obiter dictum on the legal principle that any case of murder must be proved by the prosecution beyond every reasonable doubt.
Matching evidence to acts, he said the first accused person could not have been responsible for the shooting that led to the death of Victor since he was only armed with a smoke gun.
He further ruled that the third accused person though was assigned an AK47 rifle on the day of the incident, the police witness proved that he returned the gun with all his assigned ammunition intact.
In a judgment that lasted over an hour, he held that all the bullets that eventually killed Victor were fired by Mathew. On the first ingredient of murder which is whether the deceased died, the judge said: “ Evidence before me unequivocally points to the fact that Victor Emmmanuel died”.
Referring to the report of the pathologist and the evidence he gave before the court, he said nine bullets had entry and exit points on the body of the deceased. “The pathologist certified the cause of death to be multiple gunshot injuries” he said adding that five of the bullets hit late Victor on the head.
The judge further said: “There is no doubt that the death of the deceased was as a result of the gunshot fired at him by the second accused person”.
Quoting copiously from judicial precedent, Boufili added: “A man intents the natural consequences of his act from the weapons used. The act of the second accused person was intentional.
“There is a direct link between the act of the second accused person and the death of the deceased. It is for the above reason that the prosecution has proved its case beyond every reasonable doubt. The second accused person is, therefore, found guilty as charged.”
He proceeded to pronounce his sentence after listening to the pleas for leniency from the lawyer to Mathew.
“I have listened to the pleas of the defence counsel but the second accused person deserve a sentence to death by hanging”, he said.
In her remarks Briggs saluted the judiciary for the judgement but said the other two accused persons should have been punished too. She heaped praises on the media especially this reporter for following up the matter to its logical conclusion.
She said: “This is a case that is of interest to the general public. The police and law enforcement agents are there to protect our lives and properties. Even if people break the law, it is not the right of the police at any time whether accidentally or otherwise to be found guilty of killing another Nigerian.
“This process had gone through the court and justice at this time had prevailed. It will also caution the law apparatus that if two three people are together and something like the callous killing of somebody happens, the other persons should at least pay some prize.
“The point, however, is that justice has truly been done. This shows that the judiciary can work but sometimes, they don’t work. But we want the judiciary to work all the time and not some of the time. I am impressed with the way the whole thing went because it was depended on the evidence before the court.
“The fact is that the nine bullets that ended up killing Victor Emmanuel came from one gun and that gun was carried and signed by one person, the second accused. All the nine bullets, five on his head, two in his elbow and two in his buttocks were fired by one person”.
Also Grace who could not control her tears said: “I thank God that l have gotten justice for my son. I want to Thank Ankio Briggs, Mike (this reporter), and other journalists. I also want to thank honourable Henry Dan that took the matter to the House of Representatives”.
But Morris has some advice for the law-enforcement agents. He said: “Having listened to the judge, l think justice was served. But the lesson for uniform people is that you can see how you can be on your own.
“The convict was with others in the field and they said ‘shoot, shoot’ and he shot. Now he was sentenced to death by hanging. So, those who are holding arms whether they are serving the public or not should be humane enough.
“I couldn’t come to the terms with the fact that three able men claim that a 20-year old boy stabbed them to the point that they used guns on him. Others were lucky that they were not sentenced.
“Justice is served and the efforts we put in it is not in vain. Human lives must remain sacrosanct at all times.”
