• Victim was armed robber — Police

• He was an innocent farmer — Family

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM Benin City
Edo State Police Command and the family of one Samuel Imaikop  have been engaged in  war of words after the family claimed that Imaikop, who was among the five suspected armed robbers killed by the police, penultimate  Sunday, at Benin Bypass, was a farmer. The family, led by Pastor Ime Imaikop Browson, protested in Benin-City  on  Monday, calling on the police to release the corpse of their brother whom they insisted took some farmers to his farm at Ute when he was shot dead.

But  Edo State Police Commissioner, Mr Adebanjo,  debunked their claim, saying the statement  of the family was an attempt  to ridicule the Command and distort facts. He insisted that the police had  not committed any form of extra judicial killing.

Following the  protest by the family, CP Adebanjo  played to Sunday Vanguard  a video tape  in which  one of the suspected armed robbers, who identified himself as Sanda from Kebbi State, confessed  they were robbers who came to rob along the Auchi Benin Bypass before he gave up the ghost. Sanda, who spoke in Hausa language which was interpreted to  us,  said he needed money to go back to Kebbi  and pleaded with some friends to assist him.

“ But they said I should come to the bypass, that they will collect money there and give to me”. He further confessed that they were involved in  robbery operations along the Benin  Bypass before they met their waterloo in the hands of the police on  that fateful day. Sanda died after making the confessions due to the bullet injuries he sustained during the shootout with the police.

After watching the film, Adebanjo lamented that the despite the efforts being made by the police to curb crime, some Nigerians  continue to rubbish the efforts of the police through lies.

Mischief
“Edo  State Police Command wishes to refute a statement credited to Sahara Reporters dated 7th Dec.2013 which described as extra judicial killing the recent achievement recorded by the Command for and on behalf of the Edo people in the killing of five confessed and confirmed  armed robbers at the Ahor axis of the Benin/Oloku  Bypass”, the CP said.

He went on: “This speculation and the claim by the family of Imaikop is not only mischievous  but a calculated attempt to mislead the people  and put the police in bad light. Recently, there have been incessant cases of armed robbery on the Benin-Oluku Bypass and, as a result, some operatives of the Command were deployed to check the ugly trend.

“Fortunately, on the 24th of November, 2013, the Command operatives, while on patrol, encountered this group of armed robbers numbering about ten barricading the road.Upon sighting the police, the hoodlums opened fire thereby prompting an exchange of gun fire. In the process, four of the hoodlums were gunned down while the fifth suspect who sustained bullet injuries was arrested.

During  interrogation the suspect confessed being a member of the robbery gang and narrated how he was initiated into the group. He also gave a detailed account of the robbery operation on the fateful day before he gave up the ghost while being taken to hospital for treatment. The confession of the fifth person was made in the full glare of the public including journalists.

The Command wishes to reiterate that due observance of the rule of law, protection of human rights is a priority under the present leadership of the Force High Command. The Command therefore urges the public to report any case of bullet injuries to the police and disassociate themselves from rumour peddlers as they join hands in making Edo State even safer”.

Innocence
But the Imaikop family disputed the police claim. In a statement by Pastor Ime, it  said: “We observed that the man shown on television by the police commissioner who made some confessional statement before he died was not with our brother when he was killed in his farm in Ute. The man who confessed being involved in robbery to the police was not among those with him when he drove to his farm.

Our son and brother was a farmer and had carried three persons in his vehicle to the Benin Bypass on the fateful day. The fourth, a  person dropped off along the by pass to attend to his broken down vehicle is still alive today and, a  few minutes later, the police carried some corpses  in their van which included my brother and his three labourers and were driving our brother’s bus along with theirs.

The man is alive today and can attest to our claims.  We want to affirm that our brother remains innocent and had no business whatsoever with the man shown on television by the police. Apart from the cutlasses they left with, they were not carrying any weapon in the vehicle. It was the cutlasses the police displayed along with their corpses. We want to emphasize that  our brother had  no criminal record.

We  are from Akwa Ibom State. He has been farming in Ute for over twenty years and is well known in Ute community”.

Meanwhile, a  coroner  court sitting in Benin-City, presided over by Mr. F. E. N. Igbinosa, has given an order, directing the Edo State Police Commissioner  to exhume the bodies of the  four persons killed as alleged armed robbers.The Magistrate ordered. “Mr. Samuel Imaikop, 42 years, and  the three unknown persons extra-judicially killed by  the police from Edo State Command be exhumed for the purpose of examining the corpses to ascertain the causes of their death.”

Igbinosa  also ordered that  medical experts other than  the police pathologists  should  carry out  the examination or be part of same. But reacting, CP Adebanjo said, “We  have not received any order from the court and,  as a responsible organization, we will always abide by the law. But let me make it clear that there was no extra judicial killing, those who were killed engaged the police in a gun duel and we over powered them. Like I said earlier they were armed robbers”.