Policemen lament non-release of 11 slain colleagues for burial

There is anger at the Bayelsa State Police command over the delay in the burial of the 11 policemen who were killed and burnt on April 6 this year by ex-militants while escorting the body of the mother of a former militant leader, Torughedi Selky( a.k.a Young Shall Grow) for burial at Azuzuama in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area.
This is just as the Commissioner of Police, Mr Tonye Ebitibituwa, has allayed fears that suspects arrested over the killing would be extra judicially murdered. The slain policemen include Inspectors Joseph Ofozini, Mana Taru, Sergeants, Timothy Osimele, Monday Onwubuoya, Adokiye Jack, Corporal Ogholo Ukam, Constables Emmanuel Uyekpegha, Etim Mfreke, Collins Obiano, Adegbor Lucky and Ekpenyong Idongesit.
According to investigations, most of the rank and file of the police command are angry with the manner the state command under former Commissioner of Police, Kings Omire, now retired, allowed the policemen to die.
They alleged that because of the shoddy preparation by the Police leadership, rather than being conveyed in police gunboats, they were given a rickety boat which made them vulnerable to attack. Their colleagues are daily being bombarded by family members with questions on when the bodies would be released and how they would continue to survive without their breadwinners. At the police headquarters in Yenagoa, where a condolence register had been opened, colleagues of the dead policemen expressed anger over the delay in releasing the bodies for burial.
One of the policemen, who doesn’t want to be named, said the family of the late Inspector Taru had been calling daily from Adamawa State to get an update on when his body would be released and what would become of the family. He said the bereaved families are suffering as no benefit or compensation would be paid to them until after the burial.
According to him, the bodies cannot be released until their police conduct DNA on them to ascertain their true identities because after being killed, they were burnt beyond recognition. The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr Alex Akhigbe, explained that a the police command is awaiting report of the DNA before the bodies would be released to the families. Meanwhile, Ebitibituwa has assured that the three suspects including the alleged mastermind, Jackson Fabowei, would soon be arraigned.
The police boss who paraded Fabowei against the backdrop of reports that he had been extra-judicially killed by angry policemen, stated that under his watch, no suspect would be a victim of extra-judicial killing. Ebitibituwa said other suspects who took part in the killing would be arrested and brought to book as the police would not allow their death to be in vain.