Family petitions police to expose breadwinner’s killers

THE family of Chief Ogbe Onokpite, the governorship candidate of the Citizens Popular Party (CPP) in Delta State, has called on the police to ensure that the nest of police killers operating in Delta State, a year after the death of the slain high chief, should be exposed.
The family, through their lawyer, Odiana Eriata, asked the police to ensure justice for Onokpite, who contested the governorship seat in 2006 with the incumbent governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan and was allegedly shot dead on Saturday, November 26, 2011 by policemen at Beeland Hotel, Warri, on allegation of gun-running.
The family and their lawyer, at a press briefing in Lagos, stated that revelation from police investigations had revealed that a killer-gang existed in the state.
Eriata, accompanied by Dino Onokpite, the younger brother to the deceased, bemoaned the several alleged attempts to cover up the extra-judicial killing of Onokpite.
He, consequently, called on the Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Muhammed Abubakar, not to leave any stone unturned in exposing those behind several cases of assassination in Delta State.
According to Eriata, agents and powers that be in the state were alleged to have made attempts and series of manoeuvres to cover up the murder of Onokpite, which also led to the gruesome murder of British Egene and Orlando Owodo on July 17, 2012.
Egene and Owodo, he said, were the two persons suspected to have set up late Onokpite while the car where guns were planted against Onokpite was said to belong to Owodo.
Eriata said both Egene and Owodo were murdered in Bayelsa State shortly after an eyewitness in the killing of Onokpite, Mr. Gbenga Onasiji identified eight of the 11 policemen involved in the incident at an identification parade in Abuja.
“We believe that the assassination of British Egene and Orlando Owodo in Bayelsa State on the 16 July 2012 could not have been a coincident but planned to break the chain of investigation and information in order to frustrate the unraveling of the procurers of Ogbe Onokpite’s murder.
“The police must expand its investigation to the owner of the vehicle that conveyed British Egene and Orlando Owodo on the day they killed them because the character was at the Beeland Hotel the day late Onokpite was killed.
“It is also mentioned that one of the governors in South-South had also harassed the police investigators who attempted to interrogate one Papa Mike (the owner of the car) wherein Orlando and Egene were killed. I think there is more to this killer squad in the South-South,” Eriata stated.

Tribune