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| Ibrahim Idris, Inspector General of Police |
By
Opemipo Adeniyi
A
fortnight ago, Nyesom Wike, Governor of Rivers State, told a
gathering in Port-Harcourt that the Nigerian Police were sabotaging
all his efforts at improving security in the state.
He
specifically accused the SARS of perpetrating the robberies and
kidnappings in the state. But, Ibrahim Idris, the Inspector-General
of Police, described the allegations as “nonsense”.
Less
that two weeks after Wike’s claim, five members of the squad have
been found guilty of extrajudicial killing.
A
High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on
Friday held that the SARS officials, led by one Samuel Chigbu,
arrested 28-year-old Michael Akor and his friend, Michael Igwe, in
Oyigbo Local Government Area of the state on June 22, 2009, only for
their bodies to be found in a nearby bush the next day.
Adolphus
Enebeli, the presiding judge, also ordered the Nigeria Police to pay
a N50 million compensation to the families of the victims.
He
noted that no investigation or trial was carried out by the security
agents before killing the two young graduates contrary to the laws of
the land.
The
policemen had argued that the two Michaels were members of a group of
hoodlums who had engaged the police in a gun battle and were hit by
bullets during the crossfire, but the judge dismissed their
explanation, insisting that it was no coincidence that the two
victims were hit at the same part of their bodies.
Chigbu
and the four other SARS operatives had since been dismissed from the
Police Force after the incident. They are also facing murder charges
before Justice Margaret Opara of the State High Court in Port
Harcourt.
Johnson
Ejekwu, counsel to the late victims, told journalists after the
judgement that he would have preferred a death sentence for the
convicted ex-SARS operatives to the N50 million compensation.
Ejekwu,
however, urged relevant authorities to intervene in the extrajudicial
killings which are still being carried out by SARS in the state.
Catherine
Akor, mother of one of the deceased, lamented that no amount of
compensation would be enough to make up for the loss of her son.
She
said her husband’s health had deteriorated since the death of their
son and that he has suffered severe memory loss.
Culled
from www.naijanews.com
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