Police deny me access to my Son’s corpse 4 months after killing, retired Anambra journalist laments

Seventy-year-old Rex Okechukwu shares with IKENNA OBIANERI the pain of family since his 27-year-old son, a final year student of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, was killed by private security guards in Anambra State

Where you are from?

I am from Ochuche in Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State, and I hold the title of a traditional chief, the Onowu Iyasele of Anigbonwa kingdom.

There were reports of how your son was killed allegedly by security operatives. Can you tell us the circumstances that led to this incident?

The incident happened on Saturday, August 17, 2024. My son, Okechukwu Noel Chinedu, woke up in the morning. He greeted me, and at about 8:30am, he told me that he was going to Stella Odua’s Estate to buy fresh fish from a fishpond in that place. But not quite up to 20 minutes or thereabout that he left, a motorcyclist ran to my compound to inform us that two security guard on in the estate were involved in an altercation with my son and one of them picked a rifle and opened fire on him and that he had died.

This left me shocked and devastated. I felt I was dreaming; I couldn’t hold myself together. My wife who heard about it became depressed, and we couldn’t do anything. We were in shock for three days, hoping that what we heard was not true.

What action did you then take after you recovered from the shock?

About three days later, when our son did not return, I went to the police station at Atani in Ogbaru to make a report. When I got to the police station on August 22 to lay a complaint to the Divisional Police Officer named I. Andrew, his chief clerk told me that he went to the bank to pay his son’s school fees. I called him on the telephone; he said he was in the bank paying his son’s school fees.

After waiting for several hours and he did not return, I left. So, the following day, August 23, I went to his office. He placed his legs on his table and told me that the report he got from the private security guards who shot my son was that my son was an armed robber who came to rob and that they saw him and his gang trying to rob in the vicinity, hence they opened fire on him. They also levelled all sorts of allegations against my son.

I told him that it was not true and that my son was never an armed robber. I challenged him to show me the evidence and the records in his office, and that as a chief crime officer in the community, he should be able to have records. I asked him to show me the gun or weapon or lethal object they claimed they recovered from my son, the items he robbed, where he broke into, and the gang members that were also arrested while my son was shot dead.

At least, if there were shootings, if he was on a shooting spree when he was shot dead, the gun he was using would have been seen alongside his corpse. The DPO seemed to be in complicity with the killers of my son.

Why was your son not in school? Was he at home because students were on vacation during that period?

My son was a 400-level undergraduate at Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam. He was in his final year. He was studying Theatre Arts. He came on a visit. He came two days before the incident, on the 15th of that month, and on the 17th, he was shot dead. The school was not in session. Sometimes, he would come home during weekends. He did not live on campus. He and some other students stayed in the hostel.

So, whenever he chose to visit us, he would come home at intervals, maybe to collect one item or the other. This particular visit became his last as he was gunned down by the private security guards. The reason they killed my son is still unknown to me.

What exactly did the motorcyclist tell you, and how did you receive the news of your son’s death?

The man just entered the compound like a guest. I was outside, and he approached me and gave me the information. He narrated everything and said the two security guards at the entrance gate of the estate and my son engaged in an altercation, and suddenly, one of them picked a rifle and opened fire on him. I could not hold myself.

I was shocked and devastated. I couldn’t easily organise myself because I wondered what could have led to the killing of my son just about 20 minutes after he left the house. Up till today, I am still in shock and wondering about the circumstances that led to his death. My wife, who was also at home, was dumbfounded. For three days, we couldn’t do anything.

Did you try to enquire about the kind of altercation that ensued between them that led the security guards to open fire on your son?

Nobody knows what transpired before the shooting took place, but I supposed it should be an argument that shouldn’t have led to any issue. But what kind of altercation will make a security guard open fire on an unarmed person? Is that justified? Now, to justify their misdeed, they have come up with all sorts of allegations against an innocent boy they killed.

Did you visit the scene of the incident?

I did not go there because I was afraid that what happened to my son could as well happen to me. They could as well shoot me, and if they had shot me there, there would be nobody to demand justice.

How close is your residence to the scene of the incident?

It is within the locality of Ogbaru, and I was also in Ogbaru that day. There was no place an armed robbery operation took place on that day, and I spoke to the DPO emphatically that he should show me records. He should also be able to produce a 24-hour crime bulletin he published to that effect and the CCTV footage of the crime or the environment where the crime took place. The DPO was not able to do that.

In the end, he asked me if I would write a statement, and I said, ‘Yes’. He directed his station officer to give me a paper, which he did. I wrote my statement, and at the end of the day, he told me that he would transfer the case to the command headquarters in Awka on August 28 being Wednesday. So, I thanked him and left.

He told me that day that he was about to retire and wouldn’t want anything to happen to his pension and gratuity, and that he would just hand over this case and wash his hands off like Pontius Pilate. So, on Wednesday, August 28, I was in his office; they said they were not ready to attend to me, and I went away.

On August 30, the news saturated the mass media; maybe that was what prompted him to forward the case to Awka. He called me on the telephone and told me that he was sending the case to Awka on August 31, this time around, to the State CID Annex at Awkuzu.

I said wherever he was sending it, I was ready because I was aware that a case of murder would not be within the jurisdiction of the DPO. He would have to send it to the command headquarters, from where the matter would be sent to the homicide squad.

Did he later transfer the case?

No, he did not. The DPO did not send the case to Awkuzu. So, when I got to Awka (state police command), the Commissioner of Police asked me to write a statement. After writing a statement, they now said they would invite the DPO to bring all the security guards in Stella Odua’s Estate as well as the people he purportedly transferred the case file to at Awkuzu on Thursday, October 3, and that I would also be expected to come.

Did you go back? What happened when you went back, and are you satisfied with the CP’s intervention?

The CP said he had ordered a full-scale investigation into the matter. This is what the DPO should have done instead of arriving at a conclusion based on what he was told by the private security guards.

Has any arrest been made?

I don’t think so.

Have you been able to see the corpse of your son?

Up till today, I have not seen the corpse of my son. The DPO disallowed me from seeing the corpse of my son for a reason best known to him.

What was the excuse he gave you?

He said he (my son) was an armed robber, hence he couldn’t allow me to see his corpse. I asked, ‘An armed robber without a gun?’ My son had never stolen a pencil, not even inside his jurisdiction in Ogbaru. I have never heard that my son stole, not even in the estate. I can vouch for him any time, any day.

Where did the DPO tell you the corpse of your son was?

He did not exactly tell me, but I learnt that the security guards who killed my son took the body to a mortuary at Atani. The mortuary attendant rejected it (corpse) because it was a bullet wound victim.

So, they insisted on a police report. They went to Atani Police Station, and the DPO now assigned his SO (security officer) to join them at the mortuary, and after the process, they dumped his corpse there. That was August 17. So far, the DPO has not been able to tell me if the corpse is still there or not, but he will be able to open up maybe before the CP when the investigation commences.

How did you know of this information? Did you visit the mortuary?

I gathered from eyewitnesses and people living in the estate. It is an open secret that the people who killed him took the body to the mortuary.

How old was your son?

My son was 27 years old.

Can you recall your last conversation with your son before the incident?

On Friday, a day before the incident, we had a long conversation until we slept off. When we woke up the following morning, at about 8:30am, he bought two bags of pure water from the provisions store opposite my compound.

As he was carrying them inside, a meal was prepared for him. So, he was the one who suggested we should buy fresh fish to support the meal. That was when the idea of going to the fishpond at Stella Odua’s Estate came up. That is where we buy the item each time we need it.

How long had he been going to buy fish from the pond?

That day was not the first time. We live three kilometres away from the estate where he always bought the item each time he visited and whenever he needed it. So, he set out to go and buy it on that day, and that was the journey that he made, and he never returned home.

How was his academic performance?

He was doing well academically and was in his final year. He was in the school with his elder sister. He was admitted to the university on the same day as his elder sister. He dropped for one academic session, then travelled abroad, came back, and resumed. But his sister is already a youth corps member. So, because he lost one year, he had to begin from where he stopped.

How many children do you have?

I am a father of four.

How has your son’s death affected you and your family?

It has affected us seriously because it is a great loss to experience the death of my boy, a promising young man, while I am living. I had hoped that he would be among the people who would arrange my burial when I die, but this time, the reverse is the case. I am burying my son.

My wife has not remained the same since the incident took place. My wife has been mourning the death of her son. Nobody has been happy.

What are your expectations from \the police authorities and other relevant agencies?

The law should be allowed to take its course because my son died a sudden and unnatural death, and there is a provision in the law that deals with that. The DPO is playing a fast game, and it is unprofessional. He appears to be complicit in all ramifications, looking at the way he performed his duty and the way he played the role of a spokesman for the killers.

In the first place, are the security guards supposed to bear arms? The DPO became a spokesman for them and continued shielding them.

Are they private security officers?

They are privately employed to watch over a farm in the estate. However, eyewitnesses said the incident happened at the estate entrance. He was accused of breaking into the estate. How can somebody who is at the entrance of the gate break in?

Have you reached out to the management of the estate on the matter?

I told you that I had not been able to go there for fear of my life and that I might be harmed. You know they can harm me. So, I didn’t want to go there.

Has there been any intervention from the management of the estate?

No. The management of Stella Odua Estate has not intervened; they have not reached out to us.

CULLED FROM PUNCH