Court sentences Policemen to death, frees 3 others ove Apo killings

A High Court of the Capital Territory sitting at
Maitama, on Thursday, sentenced two Police officers to 
death over the nocturnal murder of six traders at the Apo mechanic village in Abuja, in 2005.

The victims, Ifeanyi Ozo, Chinedu Meniru, Isaac Ekene, Paulinus Ogbonna, Anthony Nwokike and Tina Arebun, 
aged between 21 to 25 years, were motor spare parts
 dealers.

They were allegedly shot dead by a team of Police men
stationed at Gimbiya Street at Garki Area 11 while returning
from a night club on June 8, 2005, based on the order of a
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Danjuma.

The Federal Government had in a charge it filed eleven 
years ago, indicted six police officers over the incident, alleging that they committed culpable homicide contrary to section 220(a) of the Penal Code.

Aside DCP Danjuma, other officers charged with murder 
were DPO Abdulsalam Othman (now at large), Nicholas Zakaria, Emmanuel Baba, Ezekiel Achejene and Sadiq
 Salam.

Delivering judgement on the case on Thursday, the Chief Judge of the high court, Justice Ishaq Bello, found only the
 4th and 5th defendants, Baba and Achejene, guilty of 
culpable homicide, based on their own confessional statements.

The court however discharged and acquitted the three
 other officers, including Danjuma, based on lack of 
evidence linking them to the actual commission of the crime.

The 4th and 5th defendants were specifically convicted for
 the murder of two of the deceased victims, Anthony and
 Tina.

The court noted that the two convicts admitted that they 
killed Anthony and Tina, who did not die immediately after 
the shooting incident, to death, based on “a directive” from DPO Othman who is still at large.

According to the record of the court, there was evidence that
Anthony was shot after residents of Guduwa Estate in Abuja,
found him with bullet wounds and handed him over to the
police.

Justice Bello described the action of the convicted 
policemen as “impunity of the highest order”, saying they showed no regard for the sanctity of human life.

The court however held that charges against Danjuma 
and the two other Police officers were vague.