The Edo State Judicial Panel of Inquiry set up to investigate the activities of the now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in the state has ordered the immediate arrest of CSP Carol Afegbai (rtd) for refusing to appear before it to explain her alleged complicity in the murder of a University of Benin student, Ibrahim Momodu.
Late Ibrahim Momodu, 22, a 500 Level student of Laboratory Science, University of Benin, was alleged to have been murdered in 2013, in Benin by the police.
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He was alleged to have been shot at number 1, Igbobaewaye Street, off Siluko road by Textile Mill junction, close to his house.
The panel had at the last hearing summoned Mrs. Afegbai to appear before it in Tuesday’s proceedings but failed to do so.
At the resumed hearing, a member of the panel, named A. B. Thomas argued that the said Carol Afegbai being Divisional Police Officer of Ogida when the incident happened has no right not to have appeared before the panel to explain her involvement in the killing of the said Momodu if she has nothing to hide from the members of the public.
“If the Court didn’t tried her then when the case was first instituted, it was because she was not included in the suit but as it is now, she is a party to the case.
“If she was not arrested in the High Court and the Court of Appeal, it is because she was not a party, it was state versus the man who pulled the trigger but before us here, she is a member to the party and if we just go ahead to conclude my Lord, it will seem she is above the law.
“Therefore, we should summon the Commissioner of Police to produce Mrs. Carol Afegba before this panel”, he said.
He added that failing to compel Mrs. Carol Afegbai to appear before it could amount to belittling the efficacies of the panel.
The panel’s chairman, Justice Ada Ehigiamusoe (rtd), therefore ordered the immediate arrest of Mrs. Afegbai.
“It is of the view therefore of this panel that the respondent having failed to appear before the said panel, a warrant of arrest should be issued against her to appear before the said panel,” he said.
