Some policemen attached to Maroko police station
in Lagos are being accused of killing 24-year old
Aondona Tavershima and burying him in a shallow
grave at Lekki beach.
Sunday Sun reports
Five of the suspected policemen are now cur
rently in police detention. The victim, a
motorcycle operator, was alleged to have
refused to stop when he was accosted by the
policemen who were said to be on patrol at
about 11am on the fateful day.
"On realizing that he was dead, the police
men picked his corpse and put it behind their
patrol vehicle, a Toyota Hilux Van, and
covered it with tyres. They drove to the
beach and buried him. We were the ones who
alerted the family that their brother had
been killed and buried,” the eyewitness
disclosed.
Narrating the incident to Sunday Sun on phone,
Aondona’s elder sister, Linda, said she got to
know about the incident on Thursday, November
11, 2014. “I knew that he left for Lekki with his
friend and when he did not come back, I assumed
that he had gone to spend time with his friends.
When I was told that my brother was killed, my
people visited the scene and saw the grave. We
later discovered that the policemen were from
Maroko police station and we went to lodge a com
plaint. They promised to invite SCID Panti to
exhume the body, as it was not their job. At night,
they came and exhumed the body and kept it in a
mortuary. The DPO later called me and requested
that they would pay us N10 million to end the
matter. They said we should go home and think
about it and get back to them,” Linda alleged.
Similarly, an in-law to the deceased, Dominic
David, claimed that he was told that policemen
were trying to arrest Aondona and he refused to
stop. “They opened fire on him and shot him.
And even when he fell down, they still continued
to shoot.
Initially, they wanted to abandon the corpse, but
the owner of the house near where he was killed
insisted that they must carry the corpse away.”
“They took his body to Lekki beach and buried him
in a grave and covered the burial site with leaves
and old carton. Unfortunately, some of the people
who witnessed the crime knew us very well and
alerted us. They promised that Panti was going to
investigate the matter but up till date, they have
not done anything about it.”
The lawyer representing the family, Barrister
Mindia Chibok, said the family intends to legally
seek redress on the injustice meted out to the
victim. We expect that by now the matter should
have been transferred to an appropriate authority
and not the same police station where the crime
was committed. We hope that the police authority
will order a thorough investigation and ensure
that the suspects, including those who are
currently at large be arrested and made to face
the wrath of the law.
I gathered that six of the suspects are currently
at large while five others are in police custody.
Confirming the incident, Lagos Police command
spokesman, DSP Kenneth Nwosu, said that as soon
as the Commissioner of Police for Lagos State got
wind of the incident, he ordered an immediate
arrest of the suspected policemen who were
alleged to have participated in the killing.
“Five policemen are currently being detained,
while State Criminal Investigation Department,
Panti, has since commenced an investigation. If
found guilty, the officers will be made to face
the wrath of the law,” Nwosu said.
Source: Sunnews Online
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