Post from: pulse.ng
A man in Cross River State has indicted the police for murdering some suspected kidnappers and claiming they were killed in a gun battle.
It has been confirmed that the police killed these suspects in their custody (Abang Ogon)
On Thursday, November 8, 2017, it was reported widely that men of the Ikom Division of the Cross River State Police Command had gunned down five suspected kidnappers in a fierce gun battle.
In the report, CrossRiverWatch had narrated that the kidnappers who were seven in number, had abducted a businesswoman identified as Mrs. Asimco at Asimco Street along Ogoja Road in the city center and following a distress call, a police patrol team chased them to a forest.
"Following a gun duel, the police killed four of the bandits in the forest while one was arrested alive and taken to the police station and was later shot by a policeman in the station while two of the bandits are still on the run but their victim has been rescued,"the report had stated.
CrossRiverWatch also quoted the State Police Public Relations Officer [PPRO], ASP Irene Ugbo as confirming the incident, giving kudos to the officers for a job well done.
However, a resident of the area, Abang Ogon, has given another dimension to the incident, saying that the suspects were killed by the police at their station.
According to Ogon, there was nothing like a gun battle between the suspects and the police killed the men extra-judicially.
Bodies of the suspects allegedly killed by the police in their custody (Abang Ogon)
Ogon who posted the observation on his Facebook page, also posted photos of the suspects at the station to prove that they were not killed during a gun battle.
This is what Ogon posted:
"Ikom KIDNAP; After the police apprehended the bandits, handcuffed them and took them to the police station, they shot them dead and the story is 'they were involved in a gun battle;' a very wonderful gun battle indeed. RespectPolice."
This is not the first time men of the Nigerian police have been accused of carrying out extra-judicial killings of criminal suspects.
Cases of such brutality abound with examples. In 2014, the same CrossRiverWatch reported how six armed robbery suspects were gunned down by the police in cold blood, with the police saying the men were killed during an exchange of gunfire.
However, after a dogged investigation by the online media, it was realized that the victims gruesomely murdered by the blood-thirsty cops who were later dubbed 'Calabar Killer Cops.'
The police officers were later arrested, dismissed and charged to court.
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