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| Chidera |
Okpoko is presently being held at the Homicide
Section of the Force Headquarters, Abuja.
According to eye witnesses, Chidera, who was from
the same village with Okpoko, was beaten and tortured on the allegation that he
stole a phone.
A nongovernmental organization, Crusade for Justice
(CFJ), insisted that the teenager was tortured to death by Okpoko in the
company of his staff. It was further alleged that after torturing Chidera,
Okpoko ordered that the boy should be moved from his house.
Family members of Chidera raised the alarm after
they couldn’t find him. Chidera’s family and community members became worried
after they went to where Okpoko claimed the boy was, but couldn’t find him.
A search party was organised and Chidera’s lifeless
body was discovered at Iyi Enu Hospital, where it was allegedly dumped by
Okpoko. A check of the body allegedly showed that he was beaten and tortured,
while his hands and legs were tied, with him suspended with chains.
The incident was alleged to have occurred on October
1, 2017, around 2am. The boy was said to have been moved to an unknown
destination. It had been speculated that Chidera was further tortured after
being moved to the unknown destination, leading to his death.
Crusade for Justice (CFJ), determined to get justice
for Chidera, petitioned the Inspector-General Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris in a
letter dated November 7, 2017. CFJ also copied Senate President, Bukola Saraki,
and the Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara.
CFJ appealed to the IGP to as a matter of urgency;
intervene in the subterfuge playing out in the case, allegedly aimed at subverting
justice. The organisation alleged that Okpoko was pulling strings and trying to
scuttle justice.
The petition reads in part: “We wondered how a
murder suspect could, right in police detention, pull strings that upturned the
IGPs directives, thereby paving way for his case to be moved from Ogidi Police
Station, Anambra State, to his choice department at the Homicide Team
attached to the Force Headquarters, rather than the Force Intelligence
Bureau, Annex, Lagos, as instructed by the IGP.
“Furthermore, it will be recalled that in an earlier
petition, sent by the firm of Patrick Ekweunife & Co, the IGP referred the
matter to the Force Intelligence Bureau Annex, Lagos, for a detailed
investigation, via letter with Ref No: CB:7000/IGP SEC/ABJ/VOL 352/402. We viewed
with extreme suspicion, disgust and lack of trust, the actions of the men of
the Homicide Section, who are now trying to overreach a standing directive
issued by your office.”
They called on the IGP to use his good office to
enforce a painstaking investigatory process, as well as embark on disengaging
members of the Homicide Team from the matter whom they alleged to be perfecting
plans to hurriedly arraign the suspect and create an avenue for his bail.
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