THE family of one Benson Orode, 26, an indigene of Edo State, is at war with the police following the mysterious death of their son, David, in custody. The deceased was arrested on May 21, 2015 by policemen who claimed to be from Lagos and, ever since then, nothing was heard about David until few days ago. The policemen, who arrested him, alleged that David bought a stolen vehicle.
However, the bad news broke, last week, when it was learnt that the body of David was deposited at a mortuary in Benin-City. This is coming barely four months after a 26-year-old worker of Protea Hotel, Benin City, Chibuike Edeh, died in the custody of the police. The police has yet unable to fish out the killers.
In the latest incident, it was the radio police crew that revealed this sad news after the family travelled from Benin-City to Abuja and then Lagos where they were informed that David died in Benin and never left the town as claimed by the police. Meanwhile, the police authorities in Benin-City have failed to make any comment on the death of David, whom Sunday Vanguard learnt died during interrogation. Family members, friends and associates, on Tuesday, protested the killing of David whose corpse, it was gathered, was deposited at the mortuary by one Corporal Oniyon Musa same day he was arrested.
The protesters stormed the premises of the Edo State House of Assembly, Edo Government House and headquarters of Edo Police Command, demanding for independent autopsy to ascertain the cause of death. His elder brother, Solomon, said the police was yet to inform the family what happened to the deceased since he was arrested, adding that N200,000 cash, phones and ATM cards belonging
to his late brother were still missing. According to him, his brother’s corpse was deposited at the morgue as Benson Agu instead of David Obode. “Until now, they have not told the family anything.
•The late David
They broke the news to journalists in Lagos and not the family. We don’t know what has happened to our brother. How could somebody you arrested be mobbed?
“We saw the body at the morgue and there is evidence he was killed by torture and shot. His landlord, who was also arrested, said my brother was tied and hung on a tree while blocks were placed on his chest. We have informed our lawyers. They have written to the IG and we are asking the police to produce our brother. They said the boy bought a stolen car. Who is the complainant? We do not know.
How did he die? The police should tell the family what happened”. Elder sister to David, Mrs Osawaru Uzehi, said the family travelled to Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt in search of where police said they took their brother but didn’t know he had been killed. Osawaru said her late brother was innocent of the crime he was accused of and that she was at the police station on the day her brother was arrested. She stated that injuries on his corpse showed that he was shot as there was a big hole on it indicating her claim.
She said David spent the night before the arrest in her house after which he left for his apartment only for her to be informed that he was in trouble. She rushed to the place only to see her brother held down by neighbours and his landlord who said the police had come for him for an undisclosed crime. “So the police, who said they came from Lagos, took my brother away to Edo State Police Command; later, they said he had been taken to Abuja and then Lagos”.
Uzehi, who wept profusely, said a legal practitioner in Lagos had written the police but then no response was heard about her brother’s whereabouts and neither was he charged to court for any criminal offence. According to her, the aged mother, who stays with her since they lost their father years ago, had become hypertensive and always troubled asking for her son.
She continued: “The policemen came in a Toyota Highlander ash colour; they were wearing ear rings and dreadlocks; if not for the police colours on their rifles, I would have doubted they were real policemen. I asked them what my brother had done. They replied that I didn’t have any right to ask them questions.
“Later, I went to the Edo State Police Command. We saw the policemen, we tried to talk to them but they did not grant us audience. We waited endlessly to see who could talk to us. We went to see the OC SARS in Edo State, he did not also attend to us. The policemen only told us he bought a stolen vehicle and that he was an armed robber. I was surprised; he stayed with me for a long time, he never took my money; if he didn’t have money, he will request from me and I will give to him. The policeman insisted that he was a thief and that they were ‘Scorpion SARS’ from Lagos.
“The next day, May 22nd, we went back to the state police command with a lawyer. The lawyer and we waited and eventually they said my brother was an armed robber but still did not allow the lawyer to see him. The next day, May 23rd, when we got there, they said they had moved my brother to Abuja and we later called a lawyer in Abuja to help us search police stations there. He went there and he could not see my brother. Later, the police told us that they had taken him to Lagos. My uncle, who is a policeman, went there and searched several police stations but did not see him”.
A copy of the family’s letter to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police by Peter Ehijinwa of Peter Ehijinwa & Co, dated June 29th,, 2015, identified the team that travelled to Benin to arrest David as Corporal Adeleke Adedeji, Corporal Abenna John, Corporal Henry Shobowale and Corporal Oniyo Musa.
The family, from Esan Central, Edo State, appealed to the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, to come to their aid in the interest of justice. When contacted, Edo State Police Commissioner, Samuel Adegbuyi, said he was on leave. The state Police Public Relations Officer, (PPRO), Stephen Onwochei, did not pick his calls.
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