Five years after the extra-judicial killing of six traders at the Apo mechanic village in Abuja, the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) yesterday told an Abuja High Court that he was compelled by his Divisional Police Officer to lie in order to save one of the policemen accused of the crime.

Dennis Asawa, a Police Constable, revealed that the DPO, Othman Abdulsalam, who is now at large, made him forge two of his statements to deflect suspicion from one of the officers accused of murdering the traders. Mr. Asawa told the trial judge, Ishaq Bello, that he made a total of three statements at both the Force Criminal Investigation Department and the State Criminal Investigation Department but only his third statement was voluntary.

“[That statement] contains the authentic report of what I witnessed in the course of my job,” he said. “It was untrue that I visited the scene of the event, as stated by the police report. In fact, some of the police witnesses told me their statements were equally dictated by the DPO.”

More retractions

Mr. Asawa is the latest of several police witnesses who have retracted their earlier testimonies. At the trial’s last session, two lead witnesses, Yakubu Philibus and Ibrahim Garba, pleaded with the court to disregard the statements they made before the Mike Okiro Panel of Inquiry that investigated the case in 2005. They insisted that they had lied, and that the six victims did not engage the police patrol squad in any sort of gun battle. Police Constable Haruna Mahmud, another witness said during cross-examination that only one of the eight statements he made was correct.

“The two statements I made on the day of the incident, and the testimony I gave at the Mike Okiro Panel were done under pressure from my DPO,” Mr. Mahmud said. According to Mr. Mammud, he was not even at the scene of the crime, he was at his duty post at Gimbya Street in Area 11, Garki, when the killings took place.

The Apo Six
In one of the most publicised cases of extra-judicial killings in Nigeria, six traders: Ifeanyi Ozor; Chinedu Meniru; Isaac Ekene; Paulinus Ogbonna; Anthony Nwodike and Augustina Arebun, were allegedly killed by a team of police officers on patrol in 2005 while the traders and a girlfriend were driving home from a night out in Abuja.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Ibrahim Danjuma, as well as police officers: Ezekiel Acheneje, Baba Emmanuel, Sadiq Salami, and Mr Abdulsalami, are standing trial on charges of culpable homicide for allegedly killing the victims. Apart from Mr. Danjuma, who was granted bail, and Mr. Abdulsalami, who is currently on the run, the remaining accused persons have been remanded at Kuje prison since 2005. The matter has been adjourned till July for fresh examination.

Source: http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/Metro/Politics/5581819-146/police_admit_to_lying_in_apo.csp