By Emma Amaize

WARRI — A Delta State High Court sitting in Effurun, has ordered the state Commissioner of Police and three other policemen  to exhume the corpses of a  National Youth Service Corps NYSC, member, Collins  Onaodowan and his brother, Owen Onaodowan, who were hurriedly buried by the police in August,  for appropriate identification, joint post- mortem examination and interment.

Justice  Onajite Kuejubola, trial judge in the matter, gave the order in his ruling on the suit  by Oghenejabor Ikimi, counsel to  Augustine Onaodowan, Mrs. Otome Onaodowan and Mr. Kelvin Onaodowan for themselves and the Onaodowan family of Alaka quarters, Effurun.

Vanguard learnt, weekend, that the police would appeal the ruling on the grounds that it was not represented in court during the proceedings that led to the order.

Specifically, the court ordered the defendants, three of who are policemen, serving at the Ekpan Police Station, Delta Sate, to “exhume the corpses of late  Collins Onaodowan and Owen Onaodowan for  proper identification by the claimants and their pathologist, pending the determination of the substantive suit.

The court also ordered the defendants to produce the exhumed corpses of the Onaodowan brothers for a joint post-mortem examination by the claimants pathologist pending the determination of the substantive suit.

The court also directed the police to handover the corpses of Collins  and Owen  to the claimants for proper burial after the conduct of the joint post- mortem examination.

A police officer at the Ekpan Police Station, who spoke to Vanguard ,yesterday, on the ruling said, “the Police at Ekpan were not aware of any such order. Definitely, we are going to appeal against it.”

“The police were not represented and we don’t know how such a ruling was obtained against us,” he said.

Counsel to the claimants  told Vanguard, “the police at Ekpan refused to sign for the court process when it was served on them and we had to take it to the officer in-charge of their legal unit in Asaba, who duly signed for it and we filed our motion, affidavit and court papers, which they ought to reply to.”

“They did not file any thing and the court, seeing the genuineness of our case, granted our requests. They cannot say they were not served, this is laughable, anyway, they should take their matter to the court, and we will meet there”, he said.