The parents of a teenage boy who was shot to dead by the police in Bayelsa say the officers wanted them to sign a statement that claimed the boy was killed by hoodlums.
An aggrieved mother whose son was allegedly murdered by the police in Bayelsa State has come out with a damning indictment of the force when she said that the officers instructed her to sign a statement that claimed that her child was killed by hoodlums.
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The woman, Preye Kokorifa, narrated that her son, Innocent, was murdered by the police in a brazen extra-judicial killing but tried to shift the blame to hoodlums.
“I sent Innocent to go and give N2,000 to my elder sister’s daughter around 11am on Thursday morning. Later in the day, I was informed that Innocent was shot by the police, and I called my husband, who was in Port Harcourt and he asked me to go and find out what happened.
First, when I went to the Anti-Kidnapping office of the police and told them that they have killed my son, they asked me to say that it was bad boys that killed him so that they can investigate quickly.
When my husband who works in Port Harcourt came back after I informed him of the incident, we also went to the SCIID and they asked me to write a statement that it was bad boys that killed my son so that they could investigate the matter, but I refused.”
The father of the late teenager, David Kokorifa, an officer of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Rivers State Sector Command, has also alleged that his son was killed by a police team in Yenagoa, the capital of the state and that the team was even led by his close friend who knows his son well.
“On August 18, 2016, my wife called me that our son was shot dead by the police. We went to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, but they denied knowledge of the incident.
We went to the anti-vice unit and they also denied. When we went to the scene of the incident, we discovered that it was the anti-vice team that came for the operation.
The following morning, I went to the anti-vice team again, but they denied knowledge of it. I saw a friend who works there. When I asked him, he also denied any knowledge of it. But I later discovered that it was my friend, who led the team that killed my son.
From there, I went to the Emergency Ward at the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, in search of my son. There, I was told that the police brought the boy in the night around 11pm, the doctors said the boy was brought dead.
That was how I knew my son was dead. I went inside the mortuary with my son’s picture and my ID card before they allowed me in. I saw his lifeless body in the morgue.
From birth, he never had any criminal record. The day he died was the day his principal called me that he made all his papers. Now, he is dead. All I demand is justice,” the sad father pleaded.
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Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations, Amiengheme Andy, has assured the family that the police will get to the root of the matter and fish out the culprit.
“We do not encourage such things. We all have children and nobody will send anyone out to shoot anybody and anyone who does that will pay dearly for it. We want to assure the family that nobody will cover up the matter.
At the end of the day, justice must be done. The Commissioner wants to see the father of the boy because it is very painful.”
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