Nsie Community Killings: Mother Of Slain Undergraduate Recounts Ordeal In Police Hands
…Says Murder Of Village Head Not Initial Reason For Police Shooting
By UbongAbasi Ise
Madam Imaobong Edet Blankson, the mother of Mr. Elijah Blankson who was allegedly shot dead by the police from Okobo division on July 15, 2020 has recently testified before the Judicial Panel of Investigation on Incidences of Police Brutality and Human Rights Violation sitting in Uyo narrating the circumstances leading to the police invasion of Nsie village in Okobo local government area and subsequent death of few individuals in the community.
Madam Blankson, who broke down in tears during cross-examination when petition No: JPPB/MEMO/044 came up for hearing, explained how her son who was 21 at the time of the incident was gunned down on the road while four others were injured following sporadic shooting by the men of the Nigerian Police Force.
She told the panel that her son, a first year undergraduate in the University of Uyo, died few minutes after leaving the house and was on his way to witness the event that played out at the village hall on that day only to be shot at by the police.
Madam Imaobong Blankson, in her testimony, said she took her dead son home in order to prepare the body for mortuary but the police came to her compound in about 15 Hilux vans and took the corpse away.
“When police came, everybody was running. Four people were shot. My son was shot on the main road. I took the body of the boy to my compound and about 15 hilux of police came in and they took the corpse of my son away,” she said amidst tears.
The witness further told the panel that after the police made away with the body, she had to search about five mortuaries in the environs of the community and she was able to find out that the body was kept at Jebas Mortuary Services at Ekeye okobo. She presented the Mortuary admission card with the Registration No: 507 before the judicial panel of investigation.
She revealed that police had paid the mortuary N10,000 out of the total amount of N30,000 charged by the management and she had to pay additional N10,000 hoping the mortuary attendant would hand over the body but he refused saying the police had issued strict warning not to release the corpse to anybody.
On the destruction of properties, Madam Imaobong Blankson said police from the Akwa Ibom State command, Ikot Akpan Abia, again raided the village four days after the death of her son, taking about 15 men.
“Police came again on 19th July 2020 at about 4.00am and were destroying almost every house on the main road and set some homes ablaze.
“They destroyed our doors, borehole and we don’t have water again.
“This unit came in about 17 hilux on that Sunday morning. They came from Ikot Akpan Abia and took away 15 men,” she recounted.
To discredit the allegation that the murder of the village head prompted the police raid in the community, Madam Blankson told the Judicial Panel that the incident of death of few individuals in the community followed a stalemated meeting at the village council hall on July 15, 2020 which was convened at the instance of the late village head.
She said the town crier had announced that members of the community should assemble at the village hall on 15th July 2020 for the report of the delegation mandated to find out circumstances surrounding the mysterious death of the then youth leader, Mr. Aniefiok Mkpo Abasi a.k.a. Sharkington which occurred on 12th July 2020.
Madam Imaobong Blankson said Sunday Uko was subsequently accused of poisoning late Aniefiok Mkpoabasi after the delegation disclosed their findings.
She testified that police came during the meeting and arrested five people, a situation that angered the people.
Her testimony further goes: “Chief Eneh was the village head. He died on the same day my son died. I heard Sunday Walter Uko is dead too. The assembly was to hear the message not to kill the people.”
It would be recalled that Barr. O.O. Anyanwu, counsel to executive council of Nsie Development Association, told our correspondent that 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 Eneh, 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.
Anyanwu said problem assumed another dimension when delegation’s report revealed Mr. Sunday Walter Uko as alleged killer of Mkpoabasi. The youth then seized 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, 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 thus leading to death and injuries. 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.
©THE RIGHTS JOURNAL
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