The family of late Elue Nduka, a staff of an Abuja security service, Metropol are demanding justice following the death of their son, allegedly killed by a police officer identified as Seargent Ibrahim Muntari.
The incident according to his brother, Dr Henry Nduka occurred on June 21, at Soars Plaza, located in the Gwarinpa area of Abuja, where Elue was deployed to provide security services.
The incident, Nduka said occurred when a customer who was driving out from the plaza gave money to the deceased. Elue, who was expected to share the money with his colleague kept it to himself.
The refusal to share, however, led to a scuffle between him and his colleague.
Narrating the incident to NewsNGR, Nduka said, “In the course of the scuffle, some of the onlookers who were said to be boys attached to some of the shops in the plaza joined the fight on the side of Elue’s colleague and started beating him up.
“In the course of defending himself, he was said to have injured one of the other boys and decided to run for cover and evade a reprisal from the other boys.”
The deceased was said to have run into an adjoining plaza, Crest Plaza that houses a branch of FCMB where “Seargent Ibrahim Muntari of Mopol 44” was deployed for cover.
“An eye witness explained that Elue begged Seargent Ibrahim Muntari to protect him from the boys who were chasing him.
“But rather than protect him, or at least seek to know what the trouble was all about, Seargent Ibrahim Muntari, in a most shocking and dastardly manner, shot him in the leg and he began to bleed profusely.
“As if the shooting was not bad enough when some of his other colleagues tried to rush him to the hospital for quick medical care, they were said to have been prevented from doing so by Seargent Ibrahim Muntari.
“Seargent Ibrahim Muntari was said to have threatened to shoot anyone who attempted to assist Elue while he bled.
”By the time the police surveillance team from Gwarinpa Police Division came to the scene and disarmed Seargent Ibrahim Muntari, to eventually allow Elue’s colleagues and some other people around to take him to the FMH Staff hospital in Gwarinpa, he had already lost too much blood and hence died before he could receive any medical assistance,” the family said.
The brother of the deceased alleged that the police are making attempts to twist the case against the deceased.
The family added, “They are said to be claiming that he was shot because he was a criminal who was attempting to rob the FCMB branch, to which Seargent Ibrahim Muntari was attached.”
NewsNGR contacted the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Command on the matter but no response was given.
While the command’s spokesperson, SP Josephine Adeh said the case was not under its jurisdiction, the spokesperson of the Police Force, ACP Muyiwa Adejobi was yet to respond to questions sent to him on the matter.