3 Police Officers Face ‘Orderly Room Trial’ Over Death Of 42 Yrs Old Woman In Delta

Three police officers attached the Ovwain Police Division are currently facing orderly room trial over the death of a 42-year-old woman, Mrs Grace Dagbo who was reportedly shot dead by suspected armed robbers.

BIGPEN Online understands that the deceased was allegedly killed by the suspected hoodlums after policemen on checkpoint impounded her vehicle around 8:pm and left her at the mercy of armed bandits along the Igbiki Avenue area of Ovwian in Udu Local Government Area of Delta State.

Police source disclosed that the police team led by an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and two others who were swiftly arrested by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Aladja/Ovwian Police, Mr Eyoh Anniete are facing orderly room trial on the order of the Commissioner of Police, Mr Adeyinka Adeleke.

“From investigation so far, the woman was killed by armed robbers. However, our men became culpable when they left the woman and daughter behind at that dangerous spot. Our Oga (DPO Anniete) who is just six days old in the station had warned against unprofessional conduct the previous day.

“Immediately the husband of the deceased reported the matter at the station, the DPO immediately arrested the police team who impounded the woman’s vehicle. So, the issue of extortion and that the policemen were the one that killed the woman was not true.”

It was gathered that the defaulting police officers after they flagged down the deceased who drove Toyota Sienna Space Bus (Reg. No AGL 822 EY), they demanded for her vehicle particulars which she provided.

Sources said the police went further to demand for her tinted glass permit but she couldn’t provide that but claimed the tinted glass permit was at home since she hurriedly left the house to pick her decoration materials from a venue and pleaded with the officers to let her go.

Not satisfied with her explanation, the policemen, reportedly impounded the vehicle at the wee hours of the night and drove it to their station whilst leaving the deceased and her 11-year-old at the spot.

Sensing danger, the deceased, a mother of four, quickly in a bid to leave the Igbiki Junction said to be a notorious spot for armed robbery, boarded an oncoming tricycle heading towards the direction the policemen was driving her vehicle to.

She was however robbed by occupants of the ‘Keke’ who turned out to be armed robbers, shot her on the rib and threw her out alongside her daughter few poles from the checkpoint. She was said to have bled to death from the gun shot wound before help came her way.

But Mr Isreal Joe, a member of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), who gave a graphic details of the incident in a Facebook post, claimed that the police orchestrated the killing of the deceased and urged the Nigeria Police Force to investigate the incident.

“The police in Ovwian stopped her, and demanded for her tinted permit of a Sienna 1999 model vehicle. She told them she was a decorator and rushing to pack up her materials and since all the other papers were available she wouldn’t be able to lay hands on the tinted (factory fitted) permit at that moment.

“According to an eye witness, her 9 years old daughter who narrated the ordeal, the police forcefully dragged her down from her car, entered her vehicle, drove her car away living the woman and the daugther vulnerable at their check point. However, the woman succeeded in taking her bag which the police suspected had some good amount of money.

“Immediately, a tricycle came, picked up the woman and her daughter, after like 100 meters from the police checkpoint, they dragged her bag with her phone inside the bag, shot her on her rib and left. Her helpless daughter was also pushed out of the tricycle (keke)”.

State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Onome Onovwakpoyeya, who confirmed the killing of the woman, however, failed to state the arrest of the officers and ongoing orderly room trial but condemned the professional misconduct of the police team on duty.

She, however also gave a skewed account of the incident, saying, “she was intercepted by Police Patrol team at Igbiki junction, Ovwian-Aladja and when she could not produce the vehicle documents on demand by the Police, the vehicle was impounded and taken to the Police station for further investigation, while the woman was left at the scene having refused to go along with the Policemen to the station”.

Continuing, the police spokesperson said: “However, on the same night, at about 2105hrs, her husband one Mr. Benjamin Dabo later reported to the DPO at the station that, while the woman was on her way home with her daughter in a commercial tri-cycle they boarded, she was attacked, robbed and shot dead by a three (3) man Armed Robbery gang operating with the same tricycle unknowingly boarded by her, but her 11yr old daughter survived the attack and escaped unhurt.  She was able to narrate how her mother was killed by men of the underworld who are yet to be arrested”.

She, however said: “The Commissioner of Police regrets the unfortunate incident leading to the death of the deceased and commiserates with her family members. He   therefore assures members of  the Public, and  in particular the immediate family of the deceased, of the commitment of the Police  to thoroughly investigate the role played by the Police in the incident and to ensure the arrest of the fleeing Armed Robbers with a view to  ensuring that full justice is done without fear or favour.”