4policemen arraigned for allegedly killing 2 over N50

FOUR
police officers were,
yesterday, arraigned before a
high court sitting in Port
Harcourt, Rivers State for allegedly killing two persons
and shooting another in the
foot over a failed attempt to
extort N50 from a bus driver. The suspects, ASP Omorogbe,
Inspector Emmason Udo,
Hadiza Musa and Samirah
Ileya of the Abacha Road
Police Station, Obia/Akpor
locality of Port Harcourt were alleged to have shot the
victims sometimes in 2010
while the driver of the
commercial bus in which the
victims were riding
attempted to escape from the policemen who demanded
N50 from him at a check
point. They were said to have been
arrested on the orders of then
Police Commissioner who
insisted on their being tried
for alleged killings. In the suit No PHC/858/2010
filed against the suspects, the
applicant, Ifeanyi Echemazu,
whose mother in-law was
shot in the leg said he took
the action to pursue justice for his mother-in-law and the
two passengers who died
during the ordeal. “The suspects thought
nobody was alive to testify
against them in this matter,
but Mrs. Christiana Aliko who
was hit on the leg is here to
testify that those who boarded the vehicle were
passengers and not robbers
as the suspects claimed,” Mr
Chidi Ekah, counsel to the
applicant told the court. He added that the driver of
the commercial bus whose
resistance to the alleged N50
extortion provoked the fatal
shooting is also alive to tell
the story. Justice Georgewill of State
High Court who presided over
the hearing, however,
adjourned the matter to April
23, 2013 to allow the
applicant and defence counsel time to present more
witnesses.