A dismissed staff of the Nigeria National
Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has allegedly shot dead a 22-year-old
secondary school leaver, Douglas Ochaga Ojugbo,for hitting
it off with his daughter.
Douglas was
preparing to write his 2015 JAMB-UTME examination, when he was shot. The NNPC staff claimed that he thought the victim was a robber.
However,
family of the deceased described the claim by the police and their
son’s killer as a rooster and bull story.
Mother of the slain boy, Mrs.
Maria Ogar Ojugbo, a director at the Fishery Unit, Ministry of
Agriculture, Calabar, told Niger Delta Voice that her son went to
collect money for a mini-notebook he sold to the man’s daughter, Mercy,
when the assailant killed him.
Father of the deceased, Mr. Ogar
Ojugbo, in a petition to the Inspector General of Police, said his son
was not a robber and that the former NNPC staff killed him in cold blood
because he was having an amorous relationship with his daughter. He
asserted: “My son is 22 years old. Sometime this year, he sold his used
mini-laptop to the daughter of the suspect, who leaves with him at his
River Basin Authority home. The daughter made a part payment of the
agreed sum leaving a balance.
“My son had been visiting the home
of the suspect to collect or recover the balance of his money. The
suspect, not pleased with the boy’s presence, inquired or demanded to
know what he was doing in his house. “My son tried to explain to him his
transaction with his daughter. Without any effort to verify the boy’s
story, he asked him to leave his house and warned him never to visit his
house again.
“My son was about leaving when his daughter asked
my son to come on March 10 and collect the balance of his money. On the
said day, my son went to the house hoping to see his daughter as they
agreed, but unfortunately he saw the suspect.
“The
suspect, on sighting my son, ran into his room and fetched his gun.
Douglas, on sighting him with a gun, took to his heels to save his life.
“However, having made up his mind to kill my son, he pursued him until
he caught up with him at the gate of Basin Authority, a distance of a
kilometre from his house. “He shot my son first on the leg as a result
of which Douglas fell down and to accomplish his goal, he shot him the
second time on the arm to make sure that my son is dead.
“Furthermore,
the suspect having accomplished his goal bundled the body of the late
Douglas into a police van and took same to the Divisional Police Officer
of Federal Housing Police station. “He conspired with the police to get
rid of the body of Douglas in order to conceal his death.”
When
Niger Delta Voice visited the Federal Housing Police Station, the DPO,
Mr. Mike Ezeweren opened up: “I got a call from one of my patrol
officers, who said an armed robbery suspect was being brought in. “I
called the control unit informing them that a suspect was apprehended at
the Basin Authority area. When the patrol team came, I saw somebody at
the back of the pick-up van and they brought him down.
“Under
such circumstance, when a suspected armed robber is killed, we heave a
sigh of relief because we refer to the deceased as minus one. They
brought along with him some iron bender and a locally-made pistol and
told me an angry mob seized him. The suspect was there with the mob. “He
said he was in his compound, a twin flat, when he heard dog barking
from the other end and that when he sought to find out why the dog was
barking, he saw someone rushing out from the sitting room of the other
flat.
“He said the suspect (Douglas) threatened him with the
machete he was holding, but he retreated to his flat and brought out his
double-barrelled gun with which he shot the suspect. “He said after the
shooting, the suspect still managed to scale through the fence in a bid
to escape but when people around heard the shout of thief, they
responded and pursued him, brought him down and continued battering him
before they even called the police.
“At
that point, I sought to know the boy’s identity but nobody knew him in
which case it was an unidentified corpse. I then told my men to take the
statement from the suspect, who acted on self-defense, after which I
contacted the health authorities to come and convey the corpse out of
our premises. “The corpse was unidentified and besides I cannot raise
N35,000 to deposit in the mortuary for an unidentified corpse. Under
what sub-head will I even tag that money or do they expect me to use my
salary? “It was that reason that made me to call the health authorities
to go and dispose of it in their own way.”
Police know nothing about boyfriend/girlfriend affair
The
DPO also said: “I do not know anything about this issue of girlfriend
and boyfriend. The man said the boy came to rob in one of his flats with
iron bar and threatened him with it. “Therefore, it was a case of
robbery; it was even the mob that first said the man shot the boy and
the man later confirmed that he actually shot the boy. “If there is
anything in the matter, they should not face the police, they should
face the man that shot him and the man is not on the run.”
On the
hasty burial of Douglas, the DPO said: “Where do you expect me to keep
the corpse when I do not have the financial backup to send the body to
mortuary? We have health authority that we call upon at any time to
dispose unidentified corpse. “Where they would have faulted me is if
someone had come to identify the corpse and I still went ahead to the
health authorities to bury the corpse. I did not follow the health
authorities to where they took the corpse.
“We normally call them
to come and dispose corpses, especially unidentified ones. At every
point in this whole encounter, I communicated with the Commissioner of
Police and also sent signals.”
A
neighbour of the suspect told Niger Delta Voice that the suspect’s
daughter, Mercy, and Douglas were friends and the suspect had warned
Douglas a number of times to stop coming to his house before the
tragedy. The neigbour said: “The man had warned the boy not to come near
the daughter again, but the two of them could not keep away from each
other and we hear that it was because of the relationship between the
boy and the girl that the man decided to take that horrible action.
“On
that fateful afternoon, we saw the man running after the boy, who was
panting and running but the man caught up with him around the Basin
Authority gate and shot him with a gun. “After shooting him, he called
the police that he had shot an armed robber. All of us were running for
our dear lives because the man is dangerous and everyone around knows
him for that.”