Murdered police officer’s pistol recovered from robber

The service pistol of a murdered Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Peter Tabugbo Chukwukeluo, who was shot several times right at the gate of his home last year, has been recovered from a suspected robber.

This latest breakthrough in the investigation came just after his family members petitioned  a nongovernmental organization, Network on Police Reforms in Nigeria(NOPRIN), alleging  that a commissioner of police was frustrating the unraveling of the deceased’s murder.

Chukwukeluo, with AP No.94329, a Barrister at law, serving in Imo State Police Command was trailed to his house in Owerri and shot by some gunmen on June 30, 2013.  He died later at a hospital.

It was further gathered that Chukwukeluo visited his friends at Mopol 18 Command, Owerri, from where he called his wife to let her know that he was with his friends watching football.

On his way back home, the deceased crossed a parked white car with some young men inside it on the road to his house. Immediately he crossed the vehicle, the vehicle took off and chased him to his house gate, where they shot him thrice on the head, chest and neck with AK47 rifle as was proved by the one live ammunition and other bullet shell recovered from the scene of crime.

That was after speaking with his wife and other members of his family on how he got shot by the hoodlums.

NOPRIN’s spokesperson, Okechukwu Nwanguma who explained that the deceased’s family member alleged that a Commissioner of Police had been persecuting the man before his death, added: “When the Officer in Charge of Homicide section of the Imo State Criminal Investigations Department(SCID), who was assigned with the case was confronted by the wife of the deceased as to why no reasonable investigation was being carried out with respect to her complaint of the murder of her husbands, the officer pleaded with her to bear with him, that his hands were tied.

“Now, family members of the deceased are informed that a young man called Abraka, a notorious hoodlum known to the police in Imo State Command, who had been arrested in connection with another heinous crime by the Anti-kidnapping Unit of the Imo State Command, had confessed being one of the killers of the late DSP. He has been in detention for some time, without anybody alerting the family or even the wife of the deceased.

“Again one Mr. Obe, another notorious criminal was arrested by the Anambra State Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) at Onitsha, and the service pistol of the deceased DSP recovered from him.”

NOPRIN called on the Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Sir Mike Okiro to ensure a prompt, impartial and exhaustive investigation into the allegations of the family members.