Outrage has trailed the swapping of the corpse of a 30 years old man with that of a 70 years old man by the police in Anambra State.
The family alleged that their son Chinonso Omeh died in the police custody of the defunct Awkuzu SARS now State CID Annex but the police presented to them the corpse of a 70 years old man. As a consequence, the family has cried out for justice over the alleged homicide, stating that their son might have been killed for ritual purposes.
Onyebuchi Omeh, elder brother to Chinonso, who stated this while addressing journalists in Onitsha, Anambra State, on Wednesday said his younger brother Chinonso , 30, who operated a car wash centre at Ogbunike, near former Tollgate, was arrested on 4th February 2022 at the instance of one Austin Izunnwanne on trumped-up charges of threat to life.
He said, “Chinonso was detained at Ogidi Police Station before his transfer to Awkuzu but police at Awkuzu denied us access to see him in the cell and even initially denied ever having him in their custody.
“After repeated attempts to see Chinonso at Awkuzu state CID Annex had failed, we wrote a petition to the AIG in charge of Zone 13, Ukpo, Anambra state through a lawyer and the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) at Ogidi was summoned who gave a graphic account of how , when and whom he handed over Chinonso to at Awkuzu.”
He said when the team from Awkuzu was summoned to Zone 13 Ukpo, they acknowledged that Chinonso was in their custody but had died, having slumped in their cell and later pronounced dead by a medical doctor. Onyebuchi said ,
“When we requested to see my brother’s corpse, we were taken to a private mortuary and shown the corpse of a 70 year-old man in place of my brother, Chinonso who was only 30-years old.” Onyebuchi alleged that the police at Awkuzu CID Annex might have killed his brother and used him for ritual purposes since they could not produce his corpse. According to him, the last time they had appointment with the police team investigating the matter at Zone 13,
Ukpo, they were surprised to hear that the two policemen from Awkuzu, the IPO, Michael Nelson and his team leader known as Big Sam, who handled their brother’s matter, earlier detained over the case, had been released.
While calling for justice over the matter, the family insisted that the police should come clean and tell them what happened to their brother and show them the corpse if he was actually dead even as they called on various human right bodies to assist them ensure that those involved in the heinous crime would not escape the wrath of the law.
When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Tochukwu Ikenga, said,”The case is currently under investigation, please.”
Also speaking , the Zonal Headquarters (Zone 13, Ukpo) Police Public Relations Officer, Nkiruka Nwode, said she had not been briefed on the extent of investigation on the matter. She promised to make enquiries and act accordingly