Police reopen 13-year-old murder case, set to exhume victims’ bodies

By Wisdom Patrick/Lagos
Will Inspector General of Police:Mohammed Abubakar finally ensure that justice is done

The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Muhammed Abubakar, has ordered the Lagos State Police Command’s Criminal Investigations Department (SCID) to reopened the 13-year-old alleged killings of four Igbo youths by policemen attached to Aguda part of Surulere in Lagos State in 2001.
Investigation by our correspondent revealed  that the Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) had recently urged Abubakar to respond to the request of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, that he provides the Attorney General of Lagos with the outcome of investigation into the alleged extrajudicial execution of four youths in Lagos in 2001.
The four youths are Anthony Ezenwafor, Chukwuemeka Ezeofor, Izuchukwu Ezeama and Aloysius Osigwe.
The police boss, in response to NOPRIN pleas, has ordered that the Lagos State Police Command reopen the case.
“I have directed that the case be reopened. Justice must be done. Even if it means exhuming the remains of the victims, police will do that.
“We must get to the root of the killings and those culpable will be punished accordingly,” he said.
NOPRIN spokesman, Okechukwu Nwanguman, told our correspondent that by a letter dated March 12, signed on behalf of the Attorney General of the Federation by one Ofulue L. N., an Assistant Director at the Federal Ministry of Justice, in response to an “application from Ekwulobia youths to do justice to four victims of extrajudicial execution by the police on July, 1, 2001, the police boss has responded in such a speed of lightening. This is something his predecessors could not do since 2001.”
AGF had requested the IGP to “kindly provide the Honourable Attorney General of Lagos State with the outcome of police investigation into the matter for further necessary action”.
Nwanguman said NOPRIN was worried that 13 years after this request, no known action was  taken by the past IGPs to ensure that necessary action was taken to ensure justice for the victims and for their indigent parents and kinsmen in Ekwulobia Youth Association, and to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to account.
He recalled that on July 1, 2001, four members of Ekwulobia Youths Association in Lagos State, namely; Anthony Ezenwafor, Chukwuemeka Ezeofor, Izuchukwu Ezeama and Aloysius Osigwe were brutally murdered by trigger-happy policemen from Aguda Police Station, Lagos.
Nwanguman said: “Since then, members of Ekwulobia Youths Association and the indigent parents of the victims, represented by Mr. Akaraka Chinweike Ezeonara, have been undertaking relentless efforts to bring the killing of their members to the notice and attention of police authorities so that justice could be done.
But these efforts have been futile and met with alleged cover up by the police.”  According to him, the four youths were gunned down by trigger-happy policemen from Aguda Police Station on July 1, 2001, at No. 48, Olaitan Street, by Kilo Bus Stop, Surulere, Lagos State.
They were killed under the suspicious of the police that they were armed robbers working for their ex-boss, Chief Jude Okolie, whom they had earlier served before securing their own business independence.
Police investigation on the claim, on the previous activities of the killed four Ekwulobia youths revealed that they were not armed robbers as attested to by members and leadership of Ladipo Main Market, Mushin, Lagos State, who confirmed that the four youths were bona fide members of their market organisation.