Nigerian Wisdom Chukumerem, who was headed to the United Kingdom, was shot and killed.
The armed robbers shot the 30-year-old Nigerian multiple times in the chest at the World Bank junction roundabout in Owerri, the state capital. He was from Awo Ommamma in the Oru East Local Government Area of Imo State.
The father of two was reportedly taking money out of a point-of-sale machine when his killers opened fire.
His older brother, Shedrack, said that his family was traumatized by the death of his younger brother in an exclusive interview on Monday, after police officers gave him access to the mortuary tally and cleared him to bury him.
The distraught 32-year-old claimed that his brother was killed by the armed robbers who attacked the POS operator after accusing him of ordering police to the scene.
He claimed that despite numerous requests from his brother to the armed robbers to not call the police, they all shot him dead on the spot.
The businessman claimed that when policemen took his brother to the Umuguma Specialists General Hospital, he was pronounced dead.
I’m Shedrack Anulika Chukwumerem, he introduced himself. The name of my younger sibling is Wisdom Somtochukwu Chukwumerem. About three years ago, he came home from a trip abroad. He owned a residence in World Bank Area N. And when I was operating the commercial service bus known as Bus Imo, I was residing with him in his home.
However, I returned to the village to launch a business. We are from Umuduru Isieke in Awo-omamma, a local government in Imo State’s Oru East region. On August 10, 2023, at around 8 o’clock, his wife called me in a panic to say that my brother had been shot by armed robbers.
The police in Owerri told me to go to the Imo State specialist hospital, where I found my brother’s dead body and police officers present. So I drove directly there that same night.
“He was married and had two daughters as children. On November 27, he would have turned 30. By the first week of September, he should have been on his way back to the UK when he was fatally shot. The police then informed me that there had been an armed robbery attack at a POS stand near the Umuguma roundabout, where my brother had gone to withdraw money. When the robbers saw that he was on call, they shot him because they believed he was trying to call the police in opposition to them.
And a bullet struck him in the left side of the chest. So that night, I left his body at the morgue. The officers took the total and instructed me to report the following day. He was my younger brother by blood. 32 is my age. The 27th of November marked his 30th birthday.
“Now that I have been forced to open a case file by the police at the Umuguma Division, I told them that I didn’t want any cases and that I wasn’t interested in any cases. Even though I didn’t want to file a case, they told me to, so I did.
“I accompanied them to the incident’s scene. It took place precisely between 8 and 8:30 pm. Along with the policemen, I visited the mortuary and the scene of the incident. I paid them to take photos, which they did. They instructed me to appear in court and take an oath, which I did.
“I paid the policemen at Umuguma Division to transfer the case to the State CID’s homicide unit in Owerri in order to get my brother’s body released for burial.
“And I felt pressured to speak with a lawyer. I have submitted a request for the case to be withdrawn to the CP with the assistance of the attorney. With the application I submitted last week are the policemen.
Shedrack said the police officers at the state police command’s homicide section had given it to him when he showed our correspondent the mortuary tally on Monday.
“The mortuary tally of my brother has been released to me,” he said, “after meeting with the IPO this afternoon with the assistance of my attorney. Examine it. Now I can bury him. But in order for me to arrange his funeral rites more easily, I will first transport his body to a nearby morgue in my town.
“He provided for us financially. My mother, a widow, is depressed. We lost our father twenty years ago. While his second daughter is only a year and three months old, his first daughter is three years old. For us, this is a very bad development. We are devastated.
When contacted, Henry Okoye, a spokesman for the state’s police department, stated that the case’s withdrawal and the family’s request for permission to bury their son do not in any way impact the ongoing investigation.
He declared that the investigation would be carried out by the police and that after the suspects are taken into custody, they will be charged with murder.
“The family’s decision to drop the case has no bearing on the police investigation. The investigation will go on as planned. When the evading suspects are apprehended, they will be charged with murder, according to Okoye.
