Family of the late youth leader, Chike Okoye of Urueze Alor village, Ogidi, Idemili North Local Government Area, Anambra State, has demanded for justice over the death of her son.
Okoye reportedly died attempting to evade arrest by police who stormed his house in connection with alleged Ogbor land dispute, between the Uruezealor Village and the traditional ruler of Ogidi, Igwe Alex Onyido.
Speaking on behalf of the family, elder brother to the deceased, Mr Kinsley Okoye urged Governor Willie Obiano, Commissioner of Police, Mr John Abang, Inspector General of Police, Mr Mohammed Adamu, President Mohammadu Buhari and International community to intervene in the matter.
He said the problem started when the monarch locked up the chairman of Uruezealor village, Mr Obide Benedict at Ogidi Police station over the land issue following the monarch running battle with the villagers over the land.
He said, “I’m passionately calling on the Commissioner of Police, Governor Willie Obiano, IGP, President Mohammadu Buhari and the whole world to come to our rescue.
“These persons should ensure we get justice for the deliberate murder of my immediate junior brother who was not suffering from anything prior to his untimely death.
“All these terminal diseases that include, ashma, do not run in our family.
“This problem started when the monarch locked up the chairman of Uruezealor village, Mr Obide Benedict at Ogidi Police station over Ogbor land issue because the monarch was having a running battle with the villagers over the land”.
“My late brotherwas among those who went for his bail and as an eloquent speaker, after speaking on behalf of the villagers, the DPO released him which did not go down well with the monarch.
“He started arresting all those who he felt were out to stop his encroachment on the Ogbor land and about five of such people were arrested and brought to his palace by the police and after torturing them, they took them to Awka where they were locked up in a toilet.
“When they came to effect the arrest of my late brother, he wanted to evade the arresrt and they held him and on the process he was said to have been pushed down from the storey building and died.
“They then abandoned him in the pool of his blood and left with the convoy of vehicles they came with.
On her part, the deceased wife, Mrs Ebele Okoye said that, “I saw all that happened, how they killed my husband. I was with him when his phone rang and he picked it and the caller told him that police have arrested Obinna Agbata at Ilo Agbata. He then came outside and I was watching him from upstairs and I advised him to come upstairs and he told me he was coming.
Suddenly about five vehicles pulled to the front of our house and policemen and vigilante men saw him and as they rushed to arrest him he ran upstairs and they pursued him and arrested him.
“In anger that he ran away, they pushed him and he fell from the one-storey building and blood started gushing out from his mouth, nose and all over his body.
“The security operatives on seeing that he was dying, abandoned him and quickly left and he was taken to Iyi-Enu hospital where he gave up the ghost.
“I want justice done in this case, let the perpetrators be brought to book, nobody is above the law. They have made me to become a widow at this early stage and the God I serve will not let them go scot-free.
“Governor Willie Obiano, IGP and President Mohammadu Buhari please ensure that the perpetrators are made to face the wrath of the law”
In his own appeal, the junior brother to the deceased, Stanley Okoye, pleaded that, “all the police and vigilante operatives that came to arrest him and their sponsors should be brought to book to serve as deterrent to would be future offenders”
“Why did the police that came to pick him abandon him, because he was dying and they ran away after killing him to be free from the
atrocity but law of retrogressive justice will not allow them to be free if they escape human law”.
“My passionate appeal is that they be brought to book especially now that the present administration is fighting corruption and criminality.”
