Court Orders Coroner’s Inquest on Remains of Man Allegedly Killed for Stealing Noodles

David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka

A Coroner’s Inquest would on Tuesday be held on the body of a man, Mr. Tochukwu Onyemelukwe, who was alleged to have been killed in 2021 by a mob for stealing noodles.

A magistrate court siting in Nanka, Orumba North Local Government Area, and preside by Ms. Chioma Ikejiofor, ordered that an inquest be held on the man’s remains despite having long been buried, following an application by Chief Nnoruka Udechukwu (SAN), for the deceased family.

This was disclosed to journalists by the Counsel to Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Kyije Abang.

The IGP had dragged four men: Mr. Joseph Omegha, Mr. Godson Oforkansi, Mr. Martin Okeke and Mr. Jacob Enemuo, to court for providing police with false information about the death of Onyemelukwe, who they alleged was killed by a mob led by one Mr. Emmanuel Ezeobi and others.

Abang said: “Yes, the matter was adjourned for September 29, but that will be after a coroner’s inquest on the remains of Onyemelukwe, which would hold on September 26.

“The matter is about four men who gave police false information in a petition they wrote to the AIG in 2021, over the death of an indigene of the community, Onyemelukwe.”

The men who appeared in the dock, during the last adjourned date pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The charge sheet read to them stated “that you Joseph Omegha ‘m’, Godson Oforkansi ‘mn’, Martin Okeke ‘m’ and Jacob Enemuo ‘m’, sometimes in the month of December, 2021 conspired among yourselves to commit a misdeamanor to wit: giving false information to a public servant, and you thereby committed an offence punishable under 496(a) of the Criminal Code Law, Cap. 36, vol. II, Revised Laws of Anambra State of Nigeria, 1991, as amended.

“You did with intention to mislead a public officer, wrote a petition to the Assistance Inspector-General of Police, FCID annex Enugu, alleging that one Emmanuel Ezeobi and others, murdered one Tochukwu Onyemelukwe in a broad day light, the fact you know to be false.

“You did conduct yourselves in a manner likely to cause the breach of public peace when you without any concrete evidence and out of malice falsely accused one Emmanuel Ezeobi and others for killing one Tochukwu Onyemelukwe.”

Counsel to the accused, Mr. Uchenna Nnabuike, from Udechukwu Chamber, who spoke to journalists said that there was no truth in the claim that the men provided false information to the IGP.