Forlorn and depressed, Mrs. Grace Victor stared at the sky. The woman, who hails from Rivers State, has yet to come to term with the reality that the killing of her son, Mr. Victor Emmanuel, on Sunday by some trigger-happy policemen is not a scene from a tragic film.

She said witnessing how her son was ruthlessly murdered and her inability to protect him was a traumatic experience that would live with her for the rest of her life.

Grace was pained that despite trying to stop the policemen at one of the checkpoints along Sanni Abacha Expressway, Yenagoa, from slaying her son, they still went ahead to riddle Emmanuel’s body with bullets.

"I saw them shoot my son; no mercy at all, they shot him brutally. As he fell while they were shooting him, the tallest of them still continued shooting him on the ground," she said.

She told PUNCH METRO that her son was killed on Sunday on her way back from church. She said Emmanuel died with a copy of the Holy Bible on his hand.

"My son went to church with me. After the close of church, I came out and boarded a commercial motorcycle and, not far from where I took off, I heard gunshots. I was scared and told the motorcycle operator to stop for us to take cover.


"All of a sudden I saw my son running and being chased by the police. Police vans were parked on both sides of the road. And, when I discovered that it was my son they were chasing and about shooting, I ran towards one of the policemen close to one of the vans.

"I told him the person they were chasing was my son. I told him he was a Christian and that he just came out of the church. By this time they were cocking their guns. By the time the policeman I approached signalled his colleagues to stop, they were already shooting at my son.

"My son was holding a Bible when he was shot. I rushed, as a mother, to go and attend to him but they threatened that if I didn’t move back they would shoot me too. They made me move back. I did not see any of the policemen with any stain of blood then. But they just picked his Bible and drove off. It was another police vehicle that came and picked him."

What could have moved the police to commit such dastardly act? PUNCH METRO gathered from sources at the scene that the late Emmanuel was displeased at the way the police were allegedly harassing and extorting money from commercial motorcyclists. He was said to have made a demeaning statement that infuriated the policemen.

Particularly, Emmanuel had reportedly condemned the attitude of the policemen, saying they only exercised their power on helpless motorcyclists and wondered why they even chose Sunday to extort money from people.

Sources said it was the statement that made the angry policemen to chase and kill him. But the police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Egoavoen Emokpai, said the police had commenced investigations on the killing.

However, the Civil Liberties Organisation has condemned the brutal killing, saying there was no justification in extra-judicial murder. The state Secretary, CLO, Mr. Morris Alagoa, asked the Inspector-General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, to call policemen attached to the state command to order, adding that the killing of Emmanuel was one death too many.

He said, "No matter what happened, even though the police statement is saying the boy was smoking hemp and even tried to fight them when they challenged him, can a 25-year old young man overpower all those policemen that chased him? Was it proper to shoot at an unarmed Nigerian? Have the police the right to pass judgment and also sentence to death?

"The CLO is calling on the Commissioner of Police in the state to, as a matter of urgency, institute an investigation team to dig into this matter and take disciplinary action against the policemen who carried out this dastardly act of killing a Nigerian with impunity. Law- abiding Nigerians cannot continue to see themselves being killed by the very policemen meant to safe guard their security.


"We want these extra-judicial killings to stop and, perpetrators made to face the law of the land. In this wise, the CLO is calling on all well-meaning Nigerians to rise up, not only condemn the negative act, but to assist in fighting for justice. The IG should call his men in Bayelsa State to order and ensure that those found culpable are punished without delay."


http://odili.net/news/source/2011/oct/21/803.html