A family in Anambra State has accused the police of presenting a septuagenarian’s corpse to them instead of their 30-year-old son, Chinonso Omeh, who reportedly died in the custody of the defunct Awkuzu Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS).
The family, which has cried out for justice over the alleged homicide, said their son might have been killed for ritual.
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Onyebuchi Omeh, who is the older brother to Chinonso, while addressing journalists in Onitsha, Anambra State, yesterday, said the victim was arrested on February 4 at the instance of one Austin Izunnwanne on trumped-up charge of threat to life.
He said Chinonso was detained at Ogidi Police Station before his transfer to Awkuzu.
He alleged that the family members were denied access to him by the police after initially denying having him in their custody.
“After repeated attempts to see Chinonso at Awkuzu State CID Annex had failed, we wrote a petition to the AIG in charge of Zone 13, Ukpo, Anambra State through a lawyer and the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) at Ogidi was summoned who gave a graphic account of how, when and whom he handed over Chinonso to at Awkuzu.”
He said when the team from Awkuzu was summoned to Zone 13 Ukpo, they acknowledged that Chinonso was in their custody but had died having slumped in their cell and later pronounced dead by a medical doctor.
“When we requested to see my brother’s corpse, we were taken to a private mortuary and shown the corpse of a 70-year-old man in place of my brother, Chinonso, who was only 30 years old,” Onyebuchi said.
Onyebuchi alleged that the police at Awkuzu CID Annex might have killed his brother and used him for ritual since they could not produce his corpse.
He said the last time they went to the police team investigating the matter at Zone 13, Ukpo, they were surprised to hear that the two policemen from Awkuzu; the IPO, Michael Nelson, and his team leader known as Big Sam earlier detained over the case, had been released.
While demanding justice over the matter, the family insisted that the police should come clean and tell them what happened to their brother and show them the corpse.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state, Tochukwu Ikenga, said, “The case is currently under investigation, please.”
Also speaking, the Zonal 13 PPRO, Nkiruka Nwode, said she had not been briefed on the extent of investigation in the matter. She promised to make enquiries and act accordingly.
