FAMILY members of some of the 12 policemen killed by unknown
gunmen in Bayelsa State were prevented from seeing their bodies
yesterday.
They had thronged the morgue of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Yenagoa, where the remains of 10 of the slain police are being preserved.
They were turned back by policemen keeping surveillance.
The recovered bodies were said to have been burnt beyond recognition.
One of the victims, who was said to be a bachelor, Lucky Ebebi, 31, a corporal, hailed from Esama, in Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta State.
He served the police for seven years.
Lucky’s elder brother, Victor, who led five members of the family to the morgue, wondered why the policemen did not allow the relatives to move close to the mortuary.
Victor lamented that his younger brother, who he described as a “jolly good fellow”, died unmarried and without leaving behind a child.
Victor described the incident as pathetic, even as he expressed optimism that Lucky might later rejoin the family alive.
Omire identified the slain policemen as two inspectors, four Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) and six constables.
The Joint Task Force (JTF) yesterday continued to comb the creeks of the oil-rich state for the remains of two policemen. It also intensified the manhunt for the killers of the officers, who were ambushed last Friday.
The Executive Director of the Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (IHRHL), Anyakwee Nsirimovu, urged the Bayelsa State Commissioner of Police, Kingsley Omire, to either resign or be sacked immediately.
He accused Omire of dereliction of duties and not acting on intelligence report that the 50 policemen on escort duty might be attacked or ambushed by aggrieved Niger Delta militants.
Nsirimovu, in a telephone interview, said the fate that befell the policemen, who were killed on the waterways of Azuzuama in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, could have been averted, if the police chief was alive to his responsibilities.
He wondered the rationale behind the deployment of 50 policemen in Azuzuama for the burial of the mother of an ex-militant leader, Kile Torughedi.
Torughedi (aka Young Shall Grow) is a Special Assistant to Bayelsa Governor Seriake Dickson on Maritime Security.
According to the activist, there was no way the militants could have planned such attack without the police commissioner knowing, saying he ought to have been more proactive.
Nsirimovu also wondered where other security personnel were when the militants took away the bodies of the officers from the waterways to the bush, where they were burnt and mutilated, with their arms, ammunition and uniforms stolen.
“The Bayelsa police commissioner should not be told that the right thing for him to do will be to resign. If he does not want to do the right thing, he should be sacked forthwith, for others to always take their jobs seriously,” the activist suggested.
But the police commissioner, who spoke through the command’s spokesman, Alex Akhigbe, dismissed the information from Nsirimovu as incorrect.
He, however, described the incident as “very unfortunate” and declined further comment.
In a telephone interview yesterday, Joint Task Force (JTF) spokesman Lt.-Col. Onyema Nwachukwu said his men were still combing the creeks for the bodies of the two remaining policemen.
Nwachukwu, who said the JTF was intensifying its manhunt for the killers, insisted that there would be no hiding place for them.
Relatives of the victims, who thronged the FMC to have a glimpse of the remains went back home disappointed.
They had thronged the morgue of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Yenagoa, where the remains of 10 of the slain police are being preserved.
They were turned back by policemen keeping surveillance.
The recovered bodies were said to have been burnt beyond recognition.
One of the victims, who was said to be a bachelor, Lucky Ebebi, 31, a corporal, hailed from Esama, in Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta State.
He served the police for seven years.
Lucky’s elder brother, Victor, who led five members of the family to the morgue, wondered why the policemen did not allow the relatives to move close to the mortuary.
Victor lamented that his younger brother, who he described as a “jolly good fellow”, died unmarried and without leaving behind a child.
Victor described the incident as pathetic, even as he expressed optimism that Lucky might later rejoin the family alive.
Omire identified the slain policemen as two inspectors, four Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) and six constables.
The Joint Task Force (JTF) yesterday continued to comb the creeks of the oil-rich state for the remains of two policemen. It also intensified the manhunt for the killers of the officers, who were ambushed last Friday.
The Executive Director of the Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (IHRHL), Anyakwee Nsirimovu, urged the Bayelsa State Commissioner of Police, Kingsley Omire, to either resign or be sacked immediately.
He accused Omire of dereliction of duties and not acting on intelligence report that the 50 policemen on escort duty might be attacked or ambushed by aggrieved Niger Delta militants.
Nsirimovu, in a telephone interview, said the fate that befell the policemen, who were killed on the waterways of Azuzuama in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, could have been averted, if the police chief was alive to his responsibilities.
He wondered the rationale behind the deployment of 50 policemen in Azuzuama for the burial of the mother of an ex-militant leader, Kile Torughedi.
Torughedi (aka Young Shall Grow) is a Special Assistant to Bayelsa Governor Seriake Dickson on Maritime Security.
According to the activist, there was no way the militants could have planned such attack without the police commissioner knowing, saying he ought to have been more proactive.
Nsirimovu also wondered where other security personnel were when the militants took away the bodies of the officers from the waterways to the bush, where they were burnt and mutilated, with their arms, ammunition and uniforms stolen.
“The Bayelsa police commissioner should not be told that the right thing for him to do will be to resign. If he does not want to do the right thing, he should be sacked forthwith, for others to always take their jobs seriously,” the activist suggested.
But the police commissioner, who spoke through the command’s spokesman, Alex Akhigbe, dismissed the information from Nsirimovu as incorrect.
He, however, described the incident as “very unfortunate” and declined further comment.
In a telephone interview yesterday, Joint Task Force (JTF) spokesman Lt.-Col. Onyema Nwachukwu said his men were still combing the creeks for the bodies of the two remaining policemen.
Nwachukwu, who said the JTF was intensifying its manhunt for the killers, insisted that there would be no hiding place for them.
Relatives of the victims, who thronged the FMC to have a glimpse of the remains went back home disappointed.
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