Policeman Shot Dead Father Of Six In Imo, Brutalised His Wife

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News From The State Monday, March 2nd, 2015

FROM IGNATIUS OKPARA, Owerri – A trigger-happy policeman attached to Mgbidi Division in Imo state, at the weekend shot dead a father of six children, Mr. James Nduka, for questioning their patrol team on why they arrested and brutalised his wife.

An eye witness who craved anonymity, told our Correspondent on Sunday “that the ugly incident which is yet to be reported in any Nigeria newspapers for reasons best known to the journalists, happened when the late Nduka saw policemen from Mgbidi Police Division of the Imo State Police Command manhandling his wife and he sought to know why they were treating her that way.

However, narrating what transpired and led to the untimely death of her husband, the deceased wife, said “On Friday evening, one of my relations brought an invitation card for my husband but my husband was not at home.

“After seeing him off with one of our children, I was going back to the house when I started hearing gunshots. I also noticed that people were running away because of the gunshots.

“But as I was talking to my child who was frightened by the sound of the gunshots, a policeman confronted me, asking me why I had told the people to run away. I said that I only spoke with my child who was frightened by the gunshots.”

“Instead, the policeman started beating me. Then his other colleagues joined him in beating me and dragged me to their patrol van where I was tortured to the extent that I defecated on myself.

Continuing, “I think somebody called my husband and when he arrived at the scene and saw me lying face down in the police van, he inquired from the policemen what offence his wife committed that she should be so treated that way.

She said her husband argued that if “I had committed an offence that the right thing was that I should be taken to the station. But one of the policemen descended on him, knocked him down and started shooting at him.

“Initially I did not know that my husband had been shot because I was still in the van lying face down but it was when we got to Oguta Police Station that one of the police officers asked the Divisional Police Officer DPO of Mgbidi, who led the police team, and if I was the wife of James Nduka who was shot.

“That was when I realised that the police had killed my husband.”

Another passerby, who witnessed the police wicked and inhuman act, but do not want to be quoted in the print, corroborated what Mrs. Nduka said, stressing that the late Nduka was not a criminal.

Hear him: “His only offence was asking the police officers what the wife had done to warrant her being beaten up, and before you knew it, the policeman, pushed him down and shot him dead.

“This is terrible because even if he had committed any crime, the best thing for the police to do was to arrest him.

“By killing him, they have rendered a hapless mother of six children, a sudden widow for no just cause.

“It is high time that the police authorities started doing thorough psychiatric test before they enlist people into the Police because what happened last Friday is a real case of madness.”

The Imo State Police Public Relations Officer PPRO, Mr Andrew Enwerem, who confirmed the incident said that the late Nduka died as a result of an accidental discharge.

He disclosed that the police officer who opened fire and killed him, had been arrested and was in the custody of the police.

As usual with the police, the Imo police spokesman, assured that the matter was being investigated.