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Showing posts with label aluu 4 news. Show all posts
Friday, August 16, 2013
Aluu 4: Victims Tortured With Dogs Before Being Set On Fire
A police officer, Mr. Raphael Ezechi, told a Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, at the resumed hearing in the killings of four University of Port Harcourt, UNIPORT, students in October 2012 in Omuokiri, Aluu community, that a dog was used to torture the students before they were set on fire.
Mr. Ezechi of the State Criminal Investigative Department and a Deputy Superintendent of Police, led in evidence by the Solicitor-General of Rivers, Mr. Rufus Godwins, narrated that “a team of policemen from Isiokpo Division was dispatched to the scene of the incident to rescue the students but due to the distance, the students were set ablaze before the arrival of the police.”
The witness, said he took photographs of the deceased and a dog, said to have been used to torture the students, adding that information was also gathered from the Internet which were recorded.
The defence counsel, however, objected to the prosecution’s move to tender the photo evidence as exhibits, contending that the police officer was not the maker of the said documents.
The defence argued that no proper foundation had been laid for the admissibility of the photographs, urging the court to reject same.
Responding, Mr. Godwins, the prosecution counsel said that the foundation was laid from records of proceedings by the court and urged the dismissal of the objection, which he described as misconceived by the defence.
Source: Vanguardng
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
We only HIT the UNIPORT students Just once – Suspects
The police on Tuesday announced a major breakthrough in their investigation into the lynching of four University of Port Harcourt students. The videotaped lynching of the students sparked outrage nationwide and the clip of the killings went viral on the Internet.
The IG disclosed the arrest during a security meeting with Chief Executive Officers and security officers of banks at the Force Headquarters, Abuja.
“I want to announce that we have made a breakthrough in the Aluu killings. The two main suspects in the case have been arrested and they will be prosecuted,” he said. The arrest brings the number of suspects arrested by the police to 23.
The students were set upon by a mob in Aluu, a community close to the university, and lynched. They were later identified as 19-year-old Lloyd Toku ( 200 level Civil Engineering); 18-year-old Ugonna Obuzor (200 level Geology student); 20-year-old Chiadika Biringa, (200 level Theatre Arts student); and Tekena Erikena, a 20-year-old a diploma (Technical) student by the management of the university.
The police, on Monday, had named Coxson Lucky, alias Bright, as the mastermind of the lynching. Lucky, who was said to owe one of the students an undisclosed sum of money, reportedly raised the alarm that the students were robbers when they went to his house to demand for the money.
The mob, which converged on the venue of the altercation, then beat and burn the students to death.
While the IGP was speaking in Abuja, the Rivers State Police Command was parading some of the suspects. The State Police Commissioner, Mr. Mohammed Ndabawa, gave the names of the suspects as Segun Lawal, Felemo Solomon, Cynthia Chinwo, Ozioma Abajuo, Ikechukwu Louis and Chigozie Samuel Evans. He accused the suspects of playing major roles in the killings.
“It is not the philosophy of the Inspector General of Police to parade suspects. Nonetheless, the gruesome manner in which the crime was committed coupled with the direct and glaring involvement of some of these suspects, and the interest generated by the heinous crime, left the police with no option than to parade them,” Ndabawa said.
He said that an investigation aimed at arresting others involved in the killing of the four students and bringing them to book was ongoing.
However, two of the suspects, who admitted taking part in the mob action, claimed that their involvement was “minimal”. While the first suspect, David Chinasa Ugbaje, said he only hit the students twice, another suspect, Ikechukwu Loius Amadi, claimed that he only beat the students once with a small stick.
Ugbaje, who said he was a cobbler, described one of the students as his customer.
He said, “Around 7am on that day, I saw a crowd beating four boys. I asked who the four men were and they (crowd) said they were armed robbers.
“So, along the line, we went there. I opened the gate and they entered. I could not control the crowd. They pointed at one of our co-tenants; the name of the person is Bright.
“Some people said they wanted to break Bright’s door. So, they started beating the boys very seriously. They took them out from my street. I now left the house. I only beat them twice.”
Ugbaje added that while one policeman at the scene of the incident pleaded with the mob to hand over the students to them, another beat the students.
“Along the line, two policemen arrived. One of the policemen was pleading (for the boys), the other one joined in beating the boys. After beating the boys, the police now said the boys should be handed over to them.
The crowd shouted, ‘We no go gree, we no go gree,” he said.
The second suspect, Ikechukwu Louis Amadi, a printer whose business is located within the UNIPORT campus, said that he only hit Toku, Obuzo, Biringa and Erikena once.
He said, “I was ready to go to my work. When I came out to pick a bike, I saw a crowd. I saw four boys, they were already naked. I shifted a bit to verify. They told me that these four boys came to rob, to steal.
“I asked them where they were taking them to. They said they were taking them to Number 9, Coca Cola Street where they lived. They mentioned one of our neighbours that they came to look for him. So, I followed the crowd.
At the end, they started beating the boys mercilessly. To be sincere, I hit them once.”
But Segun Lawal, the third suspect, said he did not take part in the beating. He claimed he raised his hands and appealed to the mob not to kill the students. Lawal, a taxi driver, explained that he was arrested after his return from a business trip to Obudu Cattle Ranch on Saturday.
At the parade, the police did not allow journalists to interview the village head of Omuokiri Aluu community, Alhaji Hassan Walewa.
However, Abubakar had said that “Intelligence report implicated the traditional ruler of Omukiri community, Aluu, Alhaji Hassan Walewa, as being the person who incited the mob to unleash terror on the victims.”
On Monday, members of the Aluu community had claimed they had no hand in the killing of the boys. However, Lloyd’s father, Mr. Mike Toku, had described the denial as an attempt to cover up the crime.
Toku insisted that his son and the three other students of the UNIPORT were tortured and killed by members of the community.
Toku, on Sunday, told our correspondent that the incident took place in the presence of members of the public and wondered why any Aluu indigene would want to deny the obvious.
He said, “To say they are not involved in the killing of my son is a big lie. It is a white lie and a cover-up for their wicked and unacceptable act. The incident did not take place in one of the community’s bushes.
“They killed my son in a place that looked like a village square, belonging to the community. While the killers were hitting my son and three other students, others stood and watched the incident.”
Toku, who insisted that his son was innocent of any crime, urged the police to arrest the killers of his son and those who watched their torture.
The late Tekena Erikena’s sister, Ann, described her brother as a humble person who had respect for people. Ann wondered why members of the community would brand him a thief and kill him.
“I cannot dictate to government on what it should do, but what we want is justice. My brother was never a thief,” she said.
Punch
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
BBC interviews the fathers of Aluu 4 murder victims
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| Listen to the interview HERE |
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
The Truth Finally Comes Out: Why the 4 Students Were Killed
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Since this incident happened I've pondered and wondered what could have gone wrong that the four boys weren't bold enough to talk and challenge those who beat and paraded them in public, leading them to where they were eventually killed.
Now the whole issue is clearer; the boys "ignorantly" got themselves involved with a cultist who operates with a gun, all in a bid to get their money back from a debtor.
Below is what actually happened according to an insider....
An indigene of Aluu owed Ugo some money and had vowed not to pay back. Ugo who was popularly known as Tipsy had gone to meet with a fearless University guy (name withheld) to help them track the debtor who had been on the run.
‘Mr Fearless guy’ (a cultist) who was feared by many in the school ad accepted to accompany his friends to get the debtor tracked down in exchange for a percentage of the debt.
They were joined by their room-mate, Chidiaka. On their way to the place, they met one of their friend, Tekena, who knew nothing about the plan, and he joined, just for the hype as is normal with young boys of juvenile age.
That made 5 boys - Ugo, Lloyd, Chidiaka, Tekena and ‘Mr Fearless Guy’ that got to the debtor’s compound. Unknown to the other four, ‘Mr Fearless Guy’ who was contracted to intimidate the debtor just to get the money paid, went with a gun.
When they got to the debtor’s house around 12am, a fight ensued, as the debtor confronted them. A next door neighbour, a woman started shouting on top of her voice, that they were thieves, attracting other bad boys around the area, whom were mainly “vikings”, the rival cult group of the one on contract.
They swung into action by tipping the vigilante group who confronted the boys, referring to them as thieves. In the process of beating the boys, while they were trying to prove their innocence, the fifth boy, ‘Mr Fearless Guy’, who is a cultist, brought out his gun to scare the people, and he escaped, leaving the rest four at the mercy of the villagers.
The explanation they tried to give fell on the community’s deaf ears as the people insisted they must be killed....and unfortunately they were lynched!
Note:- this story is an eyewitness account from the 5th boy who escaped. He narrated this to Ugo and Lloyd’s friend who has pleaded that his identity be kept secret.
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