A woman, Mrs Angela Ozioko, on Tuesday told the Enugu State Police Brutality and Extra-judicial Killings Panel how ex-state commissioner of finance, Goddy Nnadi, brought men of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad and shot her son, Emeka Ozioko, during a church ceremony and took away his body since December 4, 2011.

Ozioko told the panel that she had been crying for the past nine years over the disappearance of her son.

She said she visited many police stations and SARS office to look for her son, adding that none of the police formations had any record of her son’s arrest.

She urged the panel to unravel the mystery behind Emeka’s disappearance, adding that if he has been killed, those involved should be held to account.

She said “ Emeka Ozioko who was shot on December 4, 2011, around 3:30pm at Ohum Orba in the Udenu Local Government by operatives of the disbanded SARS, who took him away.

“Since then I have not seen him and none of police formation accepted that they know anything about his case. We went to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Enugu; we went to the office of the disbanded SARS, we went to Udenu Police Division and all of them refused us from entering their premises. They said they did not have any case like that in their stations.

“The day my son was shot was a big day in Ohum Orba because the indigenes of Orba who were appointed to different positions in the state by the then governor were celebrated. Only one Mass was celebrated at Patrick’s Catholic Church, Ohum Orba.”

She said although she was not at the church service, her son and husband was at the mass, before Emeka was called out on the telephone, shot and taken away by SARS men brought by Nnadi, who was among those being recognised.

“Around 7pm, my elder son called from where he was staying and told me that Emeka’s mobile phone was switched off. He told me to make enquires because people called him that the SARS men shot Emeka. We made enquiries and one man told my husband that my son was shot.

“Three days later, they brought youths that were equally arrested to court. They called their names but my son’s name wasn’t in the charge sheet and his name was not mentioned among those that were at large.

“I want to know whether my son who was shot in presences of many people and taken away for nine years now committed any offence by for coming to the celebration his community organised for its sons.

“”In 2017, after those that were arrested at that ceremony were released by the state government, we petitioned the Inspector-General of Police. Some policemen came from Abuja, took our statement and went back to Abuja. They invited him (Nnadi) to Abuja and afterwards our lawyer stopped answering our calls.”

Ex-commissioner demands N1b for son’s death

Similarly, a former Commissioner for Agriculture in Edo State, Dr Johnson Erimafa, asked the Edo panel to compel the police to pay him N1bn for the killing of his son a by a cop in 2003.

Erimafa, a retired Mathematics lecturer at the Ambrose Alli University, told the panel that his son, Paul Erimafa,18, was murdered by a happy-trigger police sergeant, Kalijaye, when he was on his way to watch the Big Brother Africa in a cyber cafe close to his house.

“The police abducted him at 8.30pm until 3am when they shot him dead in the front of the front of the house of the then Justice Constance Momoh. They said he a suspect. He was alone, he had no knife or gun but they killed him in the presence of the security details of the then Chief Justice

“I learnt that the boy struggled with him and raised the alarm which drew the attention of the security details that were at the CJ’s house. As my son started talking to the security details, Kalijaye, shot his legs.

“The policeman went to invite other members of his patrol team. He killed him when he came back with his team and found out that he was still alive.”

He said though no amount of money could compensate for the loss of his son, which eventually led to his wife divorcing him, the panel should order the government to pay him N1bn to assuage his pain.