Widow Cries for Justice over Husband Alleged Killed in Police Cell
Rebecca Ejifoma
Barely one week after raising the alarm that her husband, Dubem Okonkwo, went missing in Awkuzu Police cell, Mrs. Ebere Okonkwo has cried for justice over the alleged murder of her husband.
Dubem was a member of the Tricycle Owners Association of Nigeria (TOAN) Awka branch in Anambra State. The police were said to have arrested him on March 15 without explanations.
The widow recounted how she searched for her husband, who was arrested and paraded alongside other suspects by the Commissioner of Police, Echeng Echeng, at the Command Headquarters in Awka. However, she claimed that Dubem went missing after the parade.
According to the mother of one, the police picked up her husband at Unizik Junction Park, adding that the CP refused to tell the family or his association his offence.
“Why did the police kill my husband in cold blood? I am suspecting that someone paid the police to kill him. Let us assume that he committed any crime, was it right to kill him in the cell without being taken to court and condemned by the Court?,” she demanded answers.
She said her husband was “killed extra-judicially without trial and this must stop.” she said: “He must not die in vain. We visited Anambra State CP, Mr. Echeng Echeng, Anambra State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Tochukwu Ikenga and Police formations across the state and no one was able to say the offence that my 48-year-old husband committed.”
“Now that they have assassinated him in the cell. The police will now look for a crime to hang on his neck. But even if he committed any crime, was it right to kill him without taking him to the court?” she added.
She, therefore, demanded justice, saying that every Nigerian must stand with “me in this fight for justice. I demand an explanation for the death of my husband. Why was he murdered?”
“That is why I am crying to the President Muhammadu Buhari, Inspector-General (IG)of Police, Women Affairs Minister, and well-meaning Nigerians, to prevail on CP Echeng to bring the policemen and those who paid them to murder him to book.”
Okonkwo further called on Buhari and the IG to prevail on the CP to allow her take her husband’s corpse and give him a befitting burial.
