Eleven years after, Justice Ishaq Bello, Chief Judge of the FCT High Court has sentenced Emmanuel Baba and Ezekiel Acheneje to death, over the Apo six killings.
The trial court convicted the duo, for the death of Anthony Nwokike and Tina Arebun, who were allegedly summarily murdered along with Ifeanyi Ozo, Chinedu Meniru, Isaac Ekene, Paulinus Ogbonna.
Danjuma Ibrahim, Othman Abdulsalami (at large), Nicholas Zacharia, Emmanuel Baba, Emmanuel Acheneje and Sadiq Salami, were accused in a nine-count charge of killing Ifeanyi Ozo, Chinedu Meniru, Isaac Ekene, Paulinus Ogbonna, Anthony Nwokike and Tina Arebun.
The deceased were said to have been shot dead on the orders of another police officer, at a popular night club, because one of the female victims (Augustina) turned down a senior police officer’s love advances at the club.
Delivering Judgement in the matter brought by the Federal Government, against six policemen, the Justice Bello, held that the court had no option than to convict the two men on account of their own conventional statement that they shot the two traders upon instruction from superior officers.
Justice Bello said that the action of the two police men was callous and barbaric because by law, they were supposed to preserve lives of innocent citizens.
The judge further said that the actions was condemnable because there was no evidence that the two traders did anything to constitute threat to police at the time they were shot dead.
Justice Bello said that the killing of the two traders was particularly painful because, they were arrested by members of the public alive and handed over to police only for the same police, to take laws into their hands by summarily executing them.
The retraction of the confessional statement during the trial by the two convicts was dismissed, adding that it is an afterthought “to distort the truth”, that cannot hold water, because the statement by the convicted policemen, were outright confessional.
However, three other policemen including a deputy commissioner of police, Danjuma Ibrahim, Othman Abdulsalam and Sadiq salami, who were charged with conspiracy and culpable homicide, contrary to S97 and 221 of the penal code, were set free and discharged and acquitted by the court for want of evidence.
Justice Bello said from the totality of the evidence placed before d court, the charge of conspiracy cannot be established against them because of the inability of the prosecution to convince the court that the men met and agreed to kill the six traders on June 7, 2005 while returning from a night club along Gimbiya street in Abuja.
The judge said that in the case of the DCP, who was alleged to have seized an AK 47 and shot the traders in their Peugeot 406 on that fateful day, the allegation collapsed in the face of contradictions from 2 prosecution witnesses that Ibrahim never seized a gun or fired at the traders.
Justice Bello said that there was no dispute as to the fact that the DCP was having a service pistol on him and he never fired any shot with the service pistol.
The judge expressed displeasure with the shoddy manner investigations were conducted into the alleged killing, adding that if the finger print of the DCP had been taken, it could have been established whether he handled the AK 47 used in killing the traders on the day of the incident.
On the other four, shot to death, the judge said the issue remained ambiguous and vague because the prosecution was unable to establish those responsible for their murder.
In a way, the judge said that the witness told the court that Danjuma was responsible for the shooting of the four traders, while another witness said it was patrol teams invited to the scene, on robbery incident that fired the vehicle of the traders when they allegedly refused to stop, at a stop and search point mounted by police to track down the suspected robbers that had allegedly robbed crown guest inn at Gimbiya.
Justice Bello added that In the face of the contradiction, it was particularly impossible to hold anyone responsible for the death of the traders. Moreso when no name was mentioned among the patrol team invited to reinforce the ambush squad that was trialing the suspected robbers.
According to him, he said that it’s not in doubt that the occupants failed to stop, that the decision not to stop, may have created suspicion.
SEYI ANJORIN, Abuja
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