Police demands N20 million in compensation for murder of CSP Ude

The Nigerian Police Force (NPF) has requested that the Independent Investigative Panel on Human Rights Violations by the former Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Abuja award N20 million to the family of one of the policemen allegedly slain in Anambra State.

The Force informed the panel on Thursday, via its lawyer Fidelis Ogwobe, that the late officer, Akor Ude, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), was murdered at Odekpe Community while on a peacekeeping mission.

According to Ogwobe, the dead officer, who was leading a police team to the village, was assaulted and murdered by three community members whose names were discovered during the inquiry.

He told the panel, which was headed by Suleiman Galadima, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, that the murdered officer, who was the breadwinner of his family, deserved the N20m compensation given the circumstances surrounding his untimely demise.

The demand arose after the Police Department fought a petition alleging that its officers murdered a community member, Peter Ekwealor, extrajudicially, claiming that there was no evidence to confirm Ekwealor’s death.

Ogwobe, who told the panel that members of late Ekwealor’s family and their counsel did not respond to an invitation to participate in a proposed autopsy on the deceased’s body, insisted that the real victim was the slain CSP and not Ekwealor, whose cause of death, he said, was yet to be determined because an autopsy on his body had not been conducted.

He claimed that instead of granting monetary compensation to the Petitioners, the panel should donate it to the dead officer’s family.

The Petitioners, according to the Police counsel, failed to establish their case of extrajudicial death beyond a reasonable doubt, as required by the Evidence Act.

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However, counsel for the Petitioners, B.C. Egwuatu, who challenged the Police’s requests, informed the panel that late Ekwealor was a victim of abuse of power and illegal use of guns, which led to his death in police custody, according to him.

Egwuatu said the victim’s family was entitled to the N20 million compensation, noting that the deceased had 11 children, whom he said would be hard to feed and educate without their father, who was the family’s breadwinner.

He also asked the panel to grant monetary compensation to one Aboy Uduaga, who he said was also slain extrajudicially by a police force that reportedly entered Odekpe Community after a communal fight involving a neighboring community named Ana.

Meanwhile, the panel, which was chaired by Dr. Garba Tetengi (SAN) on Thursday, said it was astonished that Police would file a compensation request since it had not filed a counter plea.

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One of the Panel members, John Aikpkpo Martins, made the statement that the Panel was established to examine human rights breaches perpetrated by police against residents, not human rights violations experienced by police.

He did say, however, that because the police had raised the issue of CSP Ude’s suspected murder, the panel will investigate it and determine what to do in the interests of justice.

The case was deferred for the panel after all parties had adopted their final written addresses.

CSP Danjuma Ocheje (Delta State Police Command), Personal of IGT IRT FHQ Abuja, Commissioner of Police FCT, Commissioner of Police Delta State, and Inspector General of Police are named as respondents in the case.