The Nigerian Bar Association, Nsukka Branch, Enugu State has disagreed with the account of the Kogi State Police Command on how its member, Elias Ugwu, was allegedly killed on March 9, 2024 by policemen.
It made its position known on Friday in a statement signed by Sunny Okoro, Chairman, NBA, Nsukka Branch.
According to Okoro, Ugwu was deliberately and unjustifiably killed by state actors, and vowed that the association would continue to push until justice was duly served.
He maintained that the slain colleague left Nsukka on the fateful day to secure the release of his cousin, Alexander Ugwu, who was kidnapped alongside five other passengers at Ijih Urban Area in Kogi State.
The chairman claimed that the colleague had successfully delivered the ransom somewhere in Alede-Egume, and secured the release of the cousin.
He noted that the late colleague was making his way back to Anyigba, where his cousin resided, alongside Chidi Aneke, who accompanied him from Nsukka.
The chairman alleged that when they got to Ojigbala-Egume, unknown to them, the police laid an ambush for them.
Okoro said: “They drove into the ambush and the police, without an attempt at even stopping their vehicle, opened fire and shot him dead.
“After shooting our colleague, the other two occupants of the vehicle made passionate pleas to the police to rush him to the hospital, after identifying themselves and explaining their mission in the area.
“But the officers chose to treat them as suspected armed robbers, arrested and handcuffed the two survivors.
“At the time they eventually accepted to take our dying colleague to the hospital, it was already too late and he was pronounced dead-on-arrival.”
The NBA boss said that lawyers in Nsukka were not happy with how police distorted what happened.
Okoro added: “We have also read with dismay, the statement issued by the Police Command in Kogi, with all the distortions and contradictions that were laced with.
“We wish to put the records straight; first, that our colleague, Elias Ugwu, left Enugu State, on Saturday, the 9th day of March, 2024, the same day he was gruesomely killed by the police.
“It is, therefore, a deliberate misinformation, to state that he and his companions were seen roaming the bush in Kogi State for two days or more, prior to the 9th day of March, 2024.
“It is also a deliberate and callous distortion to state that our colleague was flagged down and he refused to stop and that it was the tyres of the vehicle that the police targeted.”
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Okoro said the account of the survivors of the incident was that police never stopped them but simply fired at Ugwu.
He said: “Why would the police allege that Elias Ugwu was killed in the bush, when he had already entirely left the village where the ransom was paid, and was driving to Anyigba, the residence of the kidnapped victim when he was killed?”
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