The protesters, mostly aged women and men, were seen outside the State police Headquarters carrying placards with the inscriptions “Police stop covering the truth”; “Let the truth prevail, arrest the killer now…”; “Murder is a crime,…”; “The killer shouldn’t be given opportunities to head and rule”; “Stop playing politics with the life of our people”; “Killing of innocent citizens must be stopped now or never”, among others.
It should be recalled that the victim was killed on July 23,2013 as he came out with other friends to participate in the PDP Councillorship primaries in the area.
The protesters who cried out for justice alleged that one Stanley Okoro Emegha was the person that killed Mr. Kalu Ogbu during the election and accused the police of arresting innocent persons who had nothing to do with the ugly incident. Speaking on behalf of the protesters, Mrs. Ugo Nnachi and Nze Nnachi Nkamaiye called on the police to make effort and arrest the alleged suspect to avoid crisis in Ekoli Edda community.
“The brother of the victim took the lifeless body of his brother to their compound and later retrieved it because some stakeholders decided to offer him N2 million and also make him the next councillor of his ward,” they further alleged.
Meantime, the lawmaker representing Afikpo South West Constituency, Eni Uduma Chima has appealed to the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Mohammed Abubakar to take over the murder case. The lawmaker who disagreed with the police report on the killing also accused them of trying to protect the real killer (names withheld) of the late Kalu Ogbu.
His words: “I call on the Inspector General of Police, IGP Mohammed Abubakar to take over the matter and assign it to officers who are honest and of unimpeachable integrity; one who will look at issues dispassionately, conduct investigation and charge the prime suspect to court for murder.
“I’m not satisfied with the investigation being carried out by the Police in Ebonyi State. They are covering up the suspect. The actual person who did the shooting is not in police custody despite overwhelming evidence from those at the scene of the incident. We’re talking about the shooting and killing of Kalu Ogbu in Ogbaja ward on 23rd July 2013 in broad day light witnessed by a thousand people who have come to volunteer their statement to the police. The police are sweeping it under the carpet. Like I keep saying, you can bend the truth, twist it, distort it but you can never destroy it. The truth will always surface.
“The man they are accusing, Nnachi KC, was with me when the incident happened in another ward. He never left his ward to the ward where the incident happened”.
But in quick reaction, the Command spokesman, DSP Sylvester Igbo, charged that people should desist from making statements they cannot prove. He said the police arrested and released the alleged suspect because nobody from the community came to the police station to indict him (suspect).
“It is not good for the people to make statements which they cannot prove. Somebody was shot at the venue of the PDP primaries but nobody came to tell the police that the person arrested was the person that committed the crime. We are still investigating the matter and as we get overwhelming evidence against the suspect, he will be rearrested and prosecuted according to the law”.
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