Some policemen attached to Maroko police station in Lagos are being accused of killing 24-year old Aondona Tavershima and
burying him in a shallow grave at Lekki beach.
Sunday Sun reports
Five of the suspected policemen are now currently in police
detention. The victim, a motorcycle operator, was alleged to have
refused to stop when he was accosted by the policemen who were said to
be on patrol at about 11am on the fateful day.
"On realizing that he was dead, the policemen picked his corpse and
put it behind their patrol vehicle, a Toyota Hilux Van, and covered it
with tyres. They drove to the beach and buried him. We were the ones who
alerted the family that their brother had been killed and buried,” the
eyewitness disclosed.
Narrating the incident to Sunday Sun on phone, Aondona’s elder
sister, Linda, said she got to know about the incident on Thursday,
November 11, 2014. “I knew that he left for Lekki with his friend and
when he did not come back, I assumed that he had gone to spend time with
his friends. When I was told that my brother was killed, my people
visited the scene and saw the grave. We later discovered that the
policemen were from Maroko police station and we went to lodge a
complaint. They promised to invite SCID Panti to exhume the body, as it
was not their job. At night, they came and exhumed the body and kept it
in a mortuary. The DPO later called me and requested that they would
pay us N10 million to end the matter. They said we should go home and
think about it and get back to them,” Linda alleged.
Similarly, an in-law to the deceased, Dominic David, claimed that he
was told that policemen were trying to arrest Aondona and he refused to
stop. “They opened fire on him and shot him.
And even when he fell down, they still continued to shoot.
Initially, they wanted to abandon the corpse, but the owner of the
house near where he was killed insisted that they must carry the corpse
away.”
“They took his body to Lekki beach and buried him in a grave and
covered the burial site with leaves and old carton. Unfortunately, some
of the people who witnessed the crime knew us very well and alerted us.
They promised that Panti was going to investigate the matter but up till
date, they have not done anything about it.”
The lawyer representing the family, Barrister Mindia Chibok, said the
family intends to legally seek redress on the injustice meted out to
the victim. We expect that by now the matter should have been
transferred to an appropriate authority and not the same police
station where the crime was committed. We hope that the police
authority will order a thorough investigation and ensure that the
suspects, including those who are currently at large be arrested and
made to face the wrath of the law.
I gathered that six of the suspects are currently at large while five others are in police custody.
Confirming the incident, Lagos Police command spokesman, DSP Kenneth
Nwosu, said that as soon as the Commissioner of Police for Lagos State
got wind of the incident, he ordered an immediate arrest of the
suspected policemen who were alleged to have participated in the
killing.
“Five policemen are currently being detained, while State Criminal
Investigation Department, Panti, has since commenced an investigation.
If found guilty, the officers will be made to face the wrath of the
law,” Nwosu said.
Source: Sunnews Online
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