BY EMMA AMAIZE

WARRI—FORUM for Justice and Human Rights Defence, FJHD, Delta State, has called on the police in the state not to kill Stanley Ogun and other armed robbery suspects arrested on October 23 in Warri, but to arraign them in court after investigation, if there is any case against them.

National Coordinator of FJHD, Oghenejabor Ikimi, in Warri, recalled that there was a robbery incident on October 23 at Abala Street, Warri, and when the chaos had subsided, policemen from Enerhen Police Division, rounded up Stanley Ogu, when the commercial bus he boarded was stopped for a routine check.

He said “Stanley, Andrew and others picked up at random were taken away in handcuff. At the Nigeria Police Station, Enerhen, while the Investigating Police Officer, IPO, was taking the statements of the above suspects, the said IPO received a call to the hearing of the said suspects to the effect that the suspects be brought to the Area Command Office in Warri for execution same day.

“The said suspects managed to alert their relatives, who in-turn briefed us, hence this petition. We state in the light of the above that the act of the police is tantamount to reckless abuse of executive powers and we warn that the said suspects should not be extra judicially executed as same amounts to jungle justice, since the suspects in accordance with Section 36(5) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) are innocent until proved guilty in the law court.”

“We, therefore, demand that the police carry out a thorough investigation of the above and if found culpable, the suspects be charged to court and in the same vein if found not wanting should be released unconditionally as the police cannot act as a complainant, an investigator, a judge and an executioner at the same time,” he said.