According to the latest updates from SaharaReporters, the young man who died, and whom the Nigerian Police Force initially claimed had hit his head on a wall, was actually tortured to death by the same Nigerian Police using their rifles in Asaba, the capital of Delta State.
SaharaReporters reports that Okediachi Emeka lost his life after being struck with a gun by some rogue police officers.
The family of the deceased informed the Nigerian news outlet that the incident occurred on Saturday at the Ogbe-Osowe quarters in Asaba.
His brother, Okediachi Desmond, recounted the event to SaharaReporters: “The Nigerian police hit his head with a gun, they killed my brother.
“On the 14th of November at about 12am to 1am, they were coming from Chronicles hotel, very close to Slot. They saw men who were not wearing uniform who stopped them but they didn’t stop because they thought they were kidnappers.
“My brother, his friend and his girlfriend who were in the car ran to a spot where the police cornered them. They started shooting sporadically and started beating them. My brother’s girlfriend ran into her own house because where they ran to was close to her house.”
“People who wanted to help them could not because of the sporadic shooting and because the police used wood on them. So no one could help them.
“I didn’t know what happened till the next morning. I saw him with a bandaged head and when I asked him what happened, he told me that he was hit in the head with a gun by police officers. The officers after doing this took him to hospital and got his head bandaged. They took his phone too.
“They came back in the morning and asked him to do a video that he hit his head on the wall while running from the police and that’s how he injured himself. They also collected N150,000 from him.
“When I heard, I was angry and followed him to the police headquarters in Asaba. When we got there he showed me the person that hit him on the head and during the melee, they took him upstairs and I stayed downstairs.
“The police said we should be thankful that at least he was not killled and instead we should take him to hospital for treatment.
“When we took him to hospital at some point, he wouldn’t talk well and we were told that he damaged his jaw when the police officers were beating him. At some point he complained of back pain and we tried treating him.
“My mum called me after some days and said he was jerking, we took him to one hospital and they rejected him, it was at the second hospital that they pronounced him dead.
“I have pictures to show that he was hit in the head and he didn’t hit his head on the wall.
When contacted, the Delta State Police Spokesperson, Bright Edafe, denied that Emeka had been struck with a gun, insisting that he had hit his head on a wall.
This is not the first time someone has died as a result of police brutality in the country. Concerns have been raised over police misconduct and extrajudicial activities, which on several occasions have led to the loss of lives, yet it seems as though those in authority are not concerned about it.
