New Telegraph

#EndSARS: Edo community seeks N50b compensation for slain youths’ families

Clan head of Imiakebu community in the Etsako East Local Government Area of Edo State, Chief Ugheiemhekhia Kareem Yahaya, Azamanodu II of Imiakebu, yesterday sought N50 billion compensation for the killing of five youths.

The clan head made the demand when he appeared with four others before the State Judicial Panel of Inquiry for victims of SARS and related abuses. The five youths were allegedly murdered by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the Aganebode Police Division, SP John Agaga, in Imiakebu community.

The incident reportedly occurred on December 28, 2019. Ugheiemhekhia also asked for N50 million compensation each for five elders, including himself, who were wrongfully detained at the Aganebode Police Station and the state Police Command Headquarters for five days.

He also asked the panel to compel the police authorities to release the bodies of the slain youths to their families to enable them to give the victims befitting burial rites, just as he called for the redeployment of the accused police officer, Agaga, from Aganebode Police Station. He said Agada’s presence in the police station was still a potential threat to members of his community.

The clan head gave names of the victims as Sabo Abacha, Garuba Shaka, Sunday Augustine, Isaac John and Sunday Junior. Addressing journalists shortly after appearing before the panel, counsel to the petitioners, Kami Asunogie Esq, said the killing occurred during a conflict between two communities, brother and sister, named Imiakebu and Isiuku, in Etsako East Local Government Area of the state under the jurisdiction of the Police Station in Aganebode. Asunogie alleged that the DPO went into the community, killed five youths within 15 minutes in the community on December 28, 2019. He also alleged that the police abandoned the victims’ bodies after killing them.

The counsel added that it was the military who evacuated the bodies to the mortuary with the assistance of the people of the community. Asunogie said up till now, every attempt to seek justice had been resisted by the DPO while the police refused to release the victims’ bodies. He said: “We have come to this panel to seek justice. The bodies of our youths that were killed have to be released to us for proper burial. “They have been in the morgue since December 2019. It is the DPO that is keeping them. “We want compensation for our community. Those people have relations, and they must be compensated. “Just for being present and waiting for an address for their village heads. They (the police) have no reason for killing them.”

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