| A 38-year-old Surveyor, Mr. Patrick Onobrudu, was beaten to death by three policemen attached to the Enerhen Police Station, Effurun in Delta State, Tuesday evening.
Vanguard was told yesterday that the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) for the station was full of rage over the matter and has ordered an investigtion into the incident but the Chairman of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) in the State, Mr. Oghenjabor Ikimi said, �this is one act of brutality too many by the police. The culprits should be fished out and appropriate sanctions meted to them to serve as a deterrent to others.� Report available to Vanguard indicated that the deceased, in company of a fellow surveyor, Mr. Elvis Affun, visited Mrs. Magareth Agie at about 9.00 pm, May 16, for a business transaction and both were returning from her place on foot when they met the policemen who were on duty at Okudolor Nursery Primary School, Off Sedeco Road junction, Effurun. Elvis who spoke to Vanguard, yesterday, said the policemen stopped them when they got to where they were and they introduced themselves as surveyors but they did not care a hoot. �They were calling us thieves and before I knew it, they started beating us with the butt of their gun and baton. I managed to escape when the beating became too much and ran back to the nearby residence of Mrs. Agie to tell her but by the time both of us returned to the scene, I saw them driving my friend away in an ALGON Jeep�, he added. S Investigation by Vanguard showed that the police arrested many people that night, accusing them of all sorts of offences, but a source said: �The aim is to rattle them (victims) and take them to the police station, where they and their relations would be made to pay huge sums of money for bail but they ran out of luck because of the kind of beating they gave to the late Patrick.� Unknown to the DPO, the late Patrick was thrown into the cell by his men and subjected to further beating, which made him to collapse at about 1.00 am, Wednesday. He was reluctantly taken to the Central Hospital, Warri more than an hour later, and he died at about 4.00 am. The deceased’s brother, Mr. Victor Onobrudu, who also spoke to Vanguard said the family would not accept the death of their son for no just cause in the hands of those that are paid to protect the life and property of citizens. A team of lawyers from the CDHR and the family also left Warri, yesterday, for Asaba to brief the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Udom Ekpoudom on the matter, and demand that justice be done. He said he was shocked when he got to the morgue of the Central Hospital, Warri and saw the lifeless body of his younger brother who was hale and hearty as at 9.00 pm, Tuesday. |
May202006