Ogah Jumbo: Idoma lawyers spit fire over murder of civil defence personnel, reveal on what will happen

The Association of Idoma Lawyers in Nigeria has issued a petition to Inspector General of Police, IGP, Haruna Mohammed, over the alleged killing of Ogah Jumbo, an Assistant Superintendent of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC.

DAILY POST reports that Ogah Jombo, was allegedly killed on Wednesday in the presence of his wife and children, when he was stopped by policemen for alleged violation of traffic regulation. http://dailypost.ng/2019/03/21/two-police-officers-detained-allegedly-killing-nscdc-personnel/

The police command, in response, said it has taken into custody two of its officers, who allegedly killed the NSCDC personnel.

However, the FPRO, Frank Mba, in a statement, claimed that the NSCDC officer slumped at the police station, which led to his death.

But, seeking justice for the deceased, Idoma lawyers in a statement by signed by its patron, Chief Godwin Obla SAN and forwarded to DAILY POST, warned the IGP to take into consideration the evidences of videos and pictures on social media fingering its officers in passing out judgement unless be sued in court.

The lawyers warned that in “event of any cover or foot-dragging in the persecution of this heinous and clear case of wanton culpable homicide, the association will spare no efforts at exploring the alternative persecution available under the criminal laws of the FCT.”

They added that the two policemen in whatever circumstance had no right to allegedly assault a citizen rather be issued a fine.

The statement read: “We have taken pains to recount the above details to you in response to and in clarification to the unsuspecting public, the shocking cavalier and misleading exculpatory press briefing held on Thursday, the 21st if March 2019, on behalf of the Force in which the Force Public Relations Office, Frank Mbah was quoted as saying that the force was not responsible for the death of the deceased NSCDC officer, Ogah Jumbo.

“While the force PRO can choose to interpret the demand of his job description only for the narrow prism of protecting the image of the force at all cost and to any extent even at the expense of values of humanity and sanctity of live, however, to do so in the face of contrary hard facts of verifiable eye-witness accounts and video recordings of the incident is counter productive to the very essence of the very ends of good image sought to be achieved by that office.

“For whatever it may be worth, assuming the deceased officer was indeed guilty of the alleged violation of the road traffic regulation, would that fact in itself be enough to constitute the officers of the Nigeria Police Force into a murderous two-man gang of assassins for an alleged offence of interaction of Road Traffic Regulation that carries no more than penalty or fines?

“Against the above backdrop of the factual accounts, should the inspector General of Police be convinced to dispassionately take appropriate steps to prosecute the officers involved in the murderous outlawry, we wish to suggest that the farce go to whole hog of objective test of justice delivery by not allowing itself to prosecute a case where it is also the accused, for to do so will fall short of the objective parameters of judgement delivery from the perspective of a reasonable man

“The association shall be willing to offer free prosecutorial services from its crops of competent lawyers including services of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, in this regard to the farce.

“Furthermore, the Association, consistent with the pursuit of objective parameters of justice delivery, wishes to strongly suggest, and indicate its interest to be mutually involved in, a post-mortem examination of the cause of death of the deceased.

“These indication and suggestion should not be understood to mean our lack of confidence in the police authority to carry out a dispassionate work in this regard, but as stated above, only towards achieving the pursuit of the whole hog of objective parameters of justice delivery.

“Otherwise in the event of any cover or foot-dragging in the persecution of this heinous and clear case of wanton culpable homicide, the association will spare no efforts at exploring the alternative persecution available under the criminal laws of the FCT.

“This we shall not hesitate to undertake alongside a contemplated civil action in humongous sum in Hundreds of millions of Naira in damages.”