Inspector General of Police, Mr Mohammed Abubukar

By Brisibe Perez

Monday, November 26th makes it one year since the Chief Ogbe Onokpite, a former Citizens Peoples Party (CPP) was killed by men of the Nigerian Police Force on allegation of gun-running.  
Being the youngest gubernatorial candidate in Delta State since the creation of the State, the 38-year-old who was allegedly murdered by the police at Beeland hotel, Orhuwhorun in Udu Local Government Area, Delta State, could be said to have grew larger than life as at the period he was killed. But that seems to be the reverse a year later as despite series of petitions by the family and other Human Right group, his remains is still laying in the morgue waiting finial investigation by the authorities before he would be interred to mother earth.
A couple of weeks prior to his death, he granted an exclusive interview with Urhobo Times where he made staggering allegations against the management of the Oil Facility Surveillance Limited (OFSL), the company in charge of managing security of the Oil Pipelines. Also, the fact that he was an Urhobo son and opposition member, who on a number of occasions in the past, criticized the ruling government in the state, headed by Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, made some people to conclude that he was eliminated by the police on the instruction of the powers that be to stop his “damaging ” activities.
Though, Uduaghan vehemently debunked the claim that Onokpite was a strong critic of his government, the insinuation has not been completely doused because of the circumstances surrounding his death.
His killing which was like a scene from one of these Hollywood movies was scripted with the presence of police at about 6.00 pm on the ill-fated Saturday following the arrest of a suspect, Malick Okorokporo, who confessed that he was instructed by the deceased to deliver two AK 47 rifles found on him to one Mr. Collins Egbara. But why he was shot dead and circumstances that led to his shooting, has kept tongues wagging till date.
Following his death, the then Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mamman Tsafe who is now the Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of Police, Zone 2 during a press conference he organized to brief journalist on the incident, said, “ the slain politician was gunned down in his hotel while he tried to run on sighting the police and that he died on the way to the hospital.
“On November 26, 2011 at about 2.00 p.m. undercover operatives at Beeland Hotel, Orhunwhoro, Udu Local Government Area intercepted a vehicle with registration no. AM 528 JRT driven by one Malik Okorokporo 33 years, of 31 Abasiomo Druona compound, Alegbo, Warri.
“The driver was flagged down by the Police patrol team at Udu Orhunwhoro Road. They searched and recovered two AK 47 rifles with Nos. 20613 and 13702, with over 60 rounds of live ammunition. These rifles were to be delivered to one Collins Egbara, Chairman of Agaga community now on the run at the instance of Ogbe Onokpite through his conveyor, Malik Okorokporo.
“The suspect took the patrol team to Beeland Hotel to apprehend his principal who attempted to flee on sighting the Police, but was maimed. The principal gave up the ghost on the way to the hospital.”
But reacting to the comments by Mr. Tsefe, Governor Uduaghan in an AIT current affairs programme, had chided the Police boss for being too quick in making such utterances saying, “As a security officer, you shouldn’t be quick in making judgement on such incidents. He ought to have be properly briefed on the matter before hold such media briefings.”
On his part, radical human rights lawyer, Mr. Festus Keyamo who has since hands-off the matter over personal reasons alleged that Onokpite was assassinated, stating that he would petition the police authorities for a full coroner inquest into the killing.
Speaking on the incident, Keyamo said, “Without any question, the police shot him on the leg and he was in pains, asking what he had done. They shot him on the chest and body and allowed him to bleed and died on the premises of the Police at the Area Command after he was stripped naked. This is what they did to defenseless citizen of Nigeria.”
Backing his words with action, the then Inspector General of Police, Afiz Rigim on December 14, sixteen 16 days after Festus Keyamo forwarded a strongly worded petition to him on the killing of Chief Onokpite, directed the same Delta State Commissioner of Police, to investigate the incident. This, Keyamo rejected, saying the Commissioner should not be saddled with the responsibility of investigating a matter in which he had already taken side.
On their part, the Onokpite family of Ugolo –Okpe, Okpe Local Government Area of Delta State dragged Mr. Mamma Tsefe before the Warri High Court even though he was “investigating” the incident as ordered by his boss the IG.
In a motion on notice filed by John Odohisi Esq on behalf of the family, the family urged the court to declare that: “The killing of Mr. Ogbe Onokpite by the third respondent’s men on the 26th of November, 2011, through multiple bullet wounds, is a breach of the said Ogbe Onokpite’s fundamental right to life as protected under Section 33 of the 1999 Constitution”.
Furthermore, it asked the court to declare that the killing of Mr. Ogbe Onokpite was done without or in the absence of a valid sentence/order of a court of in respect of a criminal offence and therefore, illegal, extra-judicial, unconstitutional and without due process.
A subsequent relief sought for by the family is an order by the court for an autopsy examination and/or a Coroner inquest into the cause and circumstances of death of the said Mr. Ogbe Onokpite, which death occurred on the 26th day of November, 2011, while he was in police custody.
The family’s grounds for the relief were that the deceased was killed in breach of his fundamental right to life by the police without any court sentence whatsoever and without due process.
Granting the prayer of the family, the Warri High Court III presided by Justice C.E Achenefu, finally ruled that since there was no agreement on the circumstances surrounding the death of the two-time former governorship candidate for the state, an autopsy should be conducted.
According to Mr. Odohisi, who confirmed the conclusion of the autopsy, “all the parties in the case were involved in the process.
“With the result of the autopsy here in Warri, we took the corpse to Lagos because we weren’t comfortable with some gray areas and we needed confirmation hence the same test was done in Lagos which came out same with the result gotten in Warri.
However, following the appointment of Mr. Mohammed Abubakar as the new Inspector General of Police which was followed by a petition from another counsel to the Onokpite family, Messrs Erieta and Partners, the police authorities decided to set up a panel to investigate the killing. In a letter to the IG, the PSC Chairman, Mr. Parry Osayande, directed that the panel should undertake a “discreet investigation of facts surrounding the death of the politician while in police custody”.
The letter reads in part, ‘’ You are to retrieve all police files records, books, registers, case files and other relevant documents pertaining to this case for proper scrutiny.
‘’Identify the police officers and their civilian cohorts who are responsible for the unlawful killing of Chief Ogbe Onokpite while in police custody for disciplinary action and prosecution
‘’And forward their names to the commission for onward transmission to the Presidential Committee on Police Reform for appropriate recommendation in accordance with its terms of references.”
The affidavit accompanying the petition by the Onokpite’s lawyers to the PSC was sworn to by Mr. Gbenga Onosuyi, said to have witnessed the incident which occurred at Beeland Hotel, Orhuwhorun.
The petitioners averred that the deceased was arrested by a team of policemen in uniform and mufti who stormed the Hotel in a Nissan Pathfinder Jeep and two Hilux vans.
They added that the police shot the deceased in both knees and drove him away to the Warri Area Command where he was “finally killed’’.
Lawyers for Onokpite also argued in the petition that the deceased was killed as a result of his “principled stand’’ on the marginalisation of the Urhobo in the sharing of an alleged monthly N2bn pipeline surveillance fund given by the Nigeria National Petroleum Company to the state government.
On his part, in a release signed by one of his younger siblings Priest Ufuoma Emmanuel Onokpite, it states, “We, the family of Onokpite, are giving thanks, honor and glory to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ who saw this day and let it come to pass for our dearest brother Chief Ogbe, because we all know that nothing can happen to a man without the concept of the Almighty God.
“I have always believed in my brother’s love for God, his zeal for what is right in the cause for the people of Delta State and he subsequently died for that cause. Like our Lord Jesus Christ, Chief Ogbe had no form or comeliness that should be looked at and no beauty that should be desired of at his death, he was brutalized and was stripped off his clothing. Yet, it is the will of the Lord that it happened, because in his death, the Lord has divided him a portion with the great and a spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul for the cause of his people,” it states.
According to Priest Onokpite, “Investigation of late has revealed that, one of the policemen indentified as one of the shooters who was said to have removed Ogbe’s necklace, died in mysterious circumstances in his cell while the duo of British and Orlando where shot by unknown gunmen. These people where living witnesses to the killing of my brother yet someway somehow, they were silenced. Even the two AK47 rifles that were presumed to belong to Ogbe were confirmed by the Police Armoury in Lagos as police rifles. Other persons indicted are still out there and with God on our side, they would be brought to book.
“Though the case is still under investigation, we urge the judiciary and the Presidency, through Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to be diligent in unraveling the circumstances surrounding his death. We are trusting God who is the highest Judiciary to do justice in this matter.”
On its part, the umbrella body of the Urhobo Nation, the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) has been quiet throughout the period of the incident. The manner in which the late politician was killed according to an Urhobo chief who spoke on anonymity is a taboo to the culture and tradition of the Urhobo people. “Imagine an Urhobo chief, stripped of his clothing, shot dead like a common criminal and let on the bare ground to the public glare, it is indeed a slap on the Urhobos,” the source added.
Meanwhile, in the heat of the incident, the UPU, Youth Wing President, Mr. Blessing Avwata, had said in one of the dailies, “I have been busy moving from one Urhobo Kingdom to the other, calming the youths down and dissuading them from taking the law into their hands as the Police did. It was unfortunate that President Goodluck Jonathan seemed to be indifferent towards the Urhobo nation, conveniently forgetting that they had voted en masse for him during the last April election.
“I call on him to prevail on the police to fish out the culprits of the murderous outrage, no matter how high up.”
In the report, the youth leader however poured encomiums on the slain chief, whom he described as well-travelled, fabulously wealthy and a dogged social crusader who fought tremendously for the cause of Urhobo nation. He warned that if the screaming injustice was not addressed, he would not know what would happen next.
In another reaction by the Delta State CPP Chairman, Mr. Lucky Okorakpa, “the gun-running charge was clearly a figment of some people’s deranged imagination. Fact is, a candidate who contested for the highest office in the state would have been subjected to intense scrutiny by the Police and the State Security Service, SSS, and even by his own political party, so that if anything had blighted his record, it would have been ferreted out long ago and he would have been disqualified.
While the Onokpite family and associates alleged that his death was politically motivated, the police have always and still maintains that he was a gun-runner and was resisting arrest when he was shot.
As the day, 26th November comes and go, the corpse of Chief Ogbe Onopkite is still in the morgue and yet to be buried. Meanwhile, the question still remains, what actually happened to Ogbe?