The
family of late Chukwuma Ihezie, who allegedly died in police custody,
has petitioned President Goodluck Jonathan seeking his order for an
autopsy to be conducted on the deceased to enable them take his remains
for burial.
Chukwuma reportedly died in detention six days after
he was arrested by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, Enugu
State Police Command.
The police had tagged the engineering graduate an armed robbery suspect, an allegation his family denied.
It
was, however, gathered that few months after, the police authorities,
after an investigation from the force headquarters, found out that the
deceased was not an armed robber.
Spokesperson of the family, Mr.
Chinedu Ihezie, said their son’s car, laptop and other personal effects
were released to the family.
He added that although police had
asked them to go and bury their son, it would be difficult to do so as
Enugu State Police Command had turned down a request for autopsy. The
letter read in part:
“Chukwuma Ihezie, a native of Umuozu Ezumoha in Isiala Mbano Local Government Area, Imo State, born in 1983.
“Our
heart is bleeding, our hope is in God Almighty through you. The future
hope and light of the family has been so extinguished. We humbly cry
unto you sir.
“On January 12, Chukwuma went for his normal cab work
and was arrested by Independence Layout, Enugu policemen for picking a
passenger whom the police falsely labelled an armed robber.
“He was
kept under detention in their station under a DPO (names withheld). He
was later transferred to Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, office by
Zakari Yau, along with his handwritten statement. On January 18,
Chukwuma was shot on the spinal cord and killed by SARS without a fair
hearing in any court of law and his corpse dumped in UNTH, Ituku Ozala,
Enugu, mortuary on Saturday, January 18.
“Chukwuma was killed to cover up a secret, which could have been unveiled if he was allowed to talk.”
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