Joy Odama: Police Fail to Parade Suspect, Release Autopsy Report

Paul Obi in Abuja

The Nigerian Police thursday failed to parade the principal suspect in the alleged murder of Joy Odama, a 200 level student of Cross River State University of Technology (CRUTECH) in the hands of one Alhaji Usman Adamu last year.

The Police Headquarters also released a new autopsy report to journalists in Abuja yesterday after several weeks on the matter.

The failure to parade the prime suspect in the case has raised eyes even as the new autopsy report contradicted the earlier one.

Speaking on the development, the Police Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood, said: “We don’t have any contradictions in regards to what we have said.

“The issue of murder is a capital offence which cannot be compromised at any level it has to go to court. Anybody have the right to go to court to table any other grievances that they might have observed or felt has happened in the course of the investigation into the matter.

“I want to assure you that what the police have done is a very thorough job that can stand the test of trial in court against the accused person. As I speak the accused person is still in police custody and that is very important to everyone to ensure that justice is done.”

Moshood explained that “at the Federal Medical Centre, Jabi, Victoria Ezekiel was placed on oxygen and treated for conditions which included carbon monoxide poisoning, dehydration, vomiting and headaches. She was later discharged in the evening.

“Preliminary investigation into this case started from Karmo Police Division in the FCT Police Command. The scene crime was visited by Police detectives, and the Federal Medical Centre Jabi where the deceased was confirmed dead was also visited.

“A thorough search of the house of Alhaji Usman Adamu now in police detention was carried out and exhibits recovered by the FCT CIID were taken over by the IG Monitoring Unit for further investigation into the matter.”

He added that the first autopsy report was not rejected by the police but the report was inconclusive, noting that was why the Inspector General of Police had to order for another autopsy to be done.

Moshood also stressed that “the report does not exonerates the suspect in question and the general public should dissociate themselves from the conflicting reports.

“I want to say that we did not reject the first autopsy report. The first autopsy report was not conclusive. In fact Dr Paul Jibril equally witnessed the second autopsy report examination that was done.

“Dr Paul Jibril was the person that did the first one that I showed you and he was present when they conducted the second one by Dr Wilson Ayewu and we equally have Augustine Okechukwu of Basic Rights Enlightenment Foundation who was equally present at the second round of the autopsy when it was carried out and it was done at the National Hospital.

“The report of the second autopsy is not exonerating the suspect and that is what is important. The prosecution still go ahead. We should disabuse our mind with any conflicting view whether police is out to exonerate the principal suspect in this regard,” he said
Conversely, the family of the deceased expressed great concern, alleging that the principal suspect (Adamu) was not in police custody, wondered why the police was shielding him in secrecy.

President, Basic Rights Enlightenment Foundation (BREF), Augustine Okechukwu who spoke on the behalf of the family stated that the family of the late Joy Odama “are not aware whether the suspect was in Police custody.”

On the autopsy result, he said: “I was there when the Police conducted the second autopsy report but the Police refused to give us the final results when it came out,” he submitted.