Revealed! How Police Opened Fire, Killed Undergraduate, Injured 4 In Nsie Community
… It Was Similar To Lekki Toll Gate Shooting – Lawyer
By UbongAbasi Ise
The Judicial Panel of Investigation on Incidences of Police Brutality and Human Rights Violation sitting in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, has received a weighty petition revealing how men of the Nigerian Police Force allegedly fired barrage of live bullets at the indigenes of Nsie community in Okobo local government area on July 15, 2020, killing a University of Uyo undergraduate, while four others were wounded by gunshots.
When the petition No: JPPB/MEMO/044 came up on November 24, 2020 for hearing at Fulga Road, Barr. O.O. Anyanwu, counsel to executive council of Nsie Development Association, said shooting at the unarmed indigenes of the Okobo community by policemen led by then Okobo Divisional Police Officer, SUPOL Etim Daniel, had led to the death of a young man, Elijah Edet Blankson, who was before his death a 100 level student at the University of Uyo. According to the petition, Blankson died at the spot from a bullet that caught his head after which the police took his corpse away refusing to release it for burial.
Other wounded victims listed in the petition include Mr. Bassey Okon, a graduate of the University of Calabar, who was shot on the leg and nearly crippled. The petition further mentioned that Mr. Stephen Edet Stephen had his bones shattered after he was shot on the leg, while Mr. Emmauel Sunday Esio is said to have been crippled by the bullet that hit his leg. Mr. Victor Edet Daniel is reported to have been shot on the back as he was running for his safety. He is in a critical condition according to the petition.
Barr. Anyanwu, while addressing the panel, said the police shootings at Nsie village was similar to the popular incident at Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos where security operatives allegedly shot at the EndSARS protesters on October 20, 2020.
The lawyer said after the alleged shooting in Nsie on 15th July, 2020, SUPOL Daniel was redeployed by the Force from Okobo division. He further recounted how members of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) led by Inspector Francis Odediera as well as the Homicide Unit of the state command led by the officer-in-charge, CSP Joseph Onwe, went to the village in a commando-style at about 4.00am on 19th July 2020, shot sporadically and took turn to be harassing the indigenes of the community, destroying a lot of properties while arresting about 23 elderly men that could not run as most of them were over 70 years of age and they were detained in dehumanizing condition for almost a week without formal arraignment but the police later forced the old men to pay huge sum of money for their release.
On what led to the sad event in this peaceful farming community, Barr. Anyanwu told the Ifiok Ukana-led judicial panel that the incident started when late Mr. Aniefiok Mkpo Abasi died on 12th July 2020 under suspicious circumstance of poisoning. Aggrieved by his death, the community sent a delegation to a nearby village to carry out “traditional inquiry” into the cause of his death. On the return of the team, the community summoned a general meeting at the village council hall on 15th July 2020 to receive the report of the delegation that later informed the village that their findings revealed that one Mr. Sunday Walter Uko poisoned late Mr Aniefiok Mkpo Abasi.
On receiving the information, the youths seized Mr. Sunday Uko in order to prevent him from escaping till the village leadership decide on what to do about the allegation. But fearing violence against the accused, the village head invited the police from Okobo Division to calm the youths down. On their arrival, the youths expressed resentment against Police’s involvement in what they termed as the “internal village affairs”. They denied the policemen access to the village council hall. According to the counsel to the petitioners, the police then went back to their station, reinforced and returned to Nsie community in the afternoon with the Okobo DPO, SUPOL Etim Daniel, leading the charge. They allegedly opened fire without warning on some youth that were guarding the entrance of the village council hall.
Speaking with our correspondent shortly after the court session, Barr. O.O. Anyanwu said the police are trying to hide away their unprofessional conducts bordering on extra-judicial killing and excessive use of force on Nsie people as they are now attributing the cause of their involvement to the consequential death of the village head, Chief Effiong Oseneme, who died as a result of being struck with a stick on the head by an unidentified youth who was expressing his anger against the monarch for his insistence to invite the police in a matter that could have been handled and resolved peacefully at the community level. The legal practitioner maintained that the village head’s murder came as an aftermath of police brutal intervention and would not be the main cause that invited them to the community in the first place as the police would want the public to believe.
Further hearing on the matter was adjourned to December 8, 2020.
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