The robbery and killing of a 42-year-old woman in Delta State, Ughochukwu Grace Dagbo, has sparked an outrage, leading to the arrest of three policemen who allegedly exposed her to the robbery gang who disguised as tricyclists to rob and kill her along the way.
Dabo was reportedly shot dead by unknown gunmen along the Igbiki Avenue area of Ovwian in Udu Local Government Area of Delta State after a brief altercation with some policemen from the Aladja/Ovwian Police Station.
The incident, which occurred last Saturday at about 8pm, however, has sparked public outrage including on social media.
However, the State Police Command has arrested three policemen including a senior officer over their alleged role in the killing of the woman, a mother of four.
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It was gathered that the deceased was reportedly flagged down by a team of policemen on stop-and-search duty at the Igbiki Junction area of Ovwian where she was thoroughly searched for her vehicle particulars.
But trouble ensued when the mother of four could not allegedly provide her Toyota Sienna Space Bus (Reg. No AGL 822 EY) tinted glass permit.
The vehicle was said to have been impounded by the police team after she claimed the tinted glass permit paper was at home and pleaded with the officers on duty to let her go as she was running late to pick her decoration materials from a venue.
Sources said that the police team led by an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) had reportedly ordered the deceased and her 11-year-old daughter, Dagbo Oghenenyerhovwo, to leave the vehicle for them.
The policemen, however, were said to have impounded the vehicle and drove the vehicle to the station and left the deceased and her 11-year-old at the spot.
In their bid to leave Igbiki Junction which is a notorious spot for armed robbery, Dagbo and her daughter flagged down and boarded a tricycle heading towards the direction the policemen were driving her vehicle to.
She was alleged to have told the tricycle rider to pursue the policemen.
Narrating the incident, a member of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), Israel Joe, in a Facebook post claimed that the police orchestrated the killing of the deceased and urged the Nigeria Police to investigate the incident.
According to Joe, “The police in Ovwian stopped her, and demanded for her tinted permit of a Sienna 1999 model vehicle. She told them she was a decorator and rushing to pack up her materials and since all the other papers were available she wouldn’t be able to lay hands on the tinted (factory fitted) permit at that moment.
“According to an eye witness, her 9-year-old daughter who narrated the ordeal, the police forcefully dragged her down from her car, entered her vehicle, drove her car away living the woman and the daughter vulnerable at their check point. However, the woman succeeded in taking her bag which the police suspected had some amount of money.
Immediately, a tricycle came, picked up the woman and her daughter, after about 100 meters from the police checkpoint, they dragged her bag with her phone inside the bag, shot her on her rib and left. Her helpless daughter was also pushed out of the tricycle (keke).
“This act of the Ovwian Police violates professionalism if they are not even the ones that orchestrated her death. The police have too many questions to answer to this regards and we hope the Delta State Commissioner of Police CP Adeleke Adeyinka will order a thorough investigation into this matter as concerned Ovwian Aladja division where they uncontrollably take laws into their hands to execute evil and lawlessness”, he said.
A senior police officer attached to Burutu Area Command, while confirming the killing of the 42-year-old woman, said the woman was killed by robbers in a tricycle she boarded to the station.
When the husband of the late decorator reported the incident at the station, the officer claimed that the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Aladja/Ovwian Police, Eyoh Anniete, had arrested the police officers who impounded the deceased vehicle.
“From investigation so far, the woman was killed by armed robbers. However, where our men became culpable was the reason to leave the woman and daughter behind at that dangerous spot. Our Oga (DPO Anniete) who is just six days old in the station had warned against unprofessional conduct the previous day.
“Immediately the husband of the deceased reported the matter at the station, the DPO immediately arrested the police team who impounded the woman’s vehicle. So, the issue of extortion and that the policemen were the one that killed the woman was not true.”
Meanwhile, the state police command has also confirmed the killing of Dagbo by suspected armed robbers.
In a statement signed by the State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Onome Onovwakpoyeya, however, did not confirm the arrest of the three officers, but condemned the professional misconduct of the police team on duty.
Onovwakpoyeya said, “On the 20th of July, 2019 at about 1920hrs, while one Mrs. Ughochukwu Grace Dagbo was driving home in the company of her 11-year-old daughter, Dabo Oghenenyerhovwo Evon, in her Toyota Sienna Space Bus Reg. No AGL 822 EY, she was intercepted by Police Patrol team at Igbiki junction, Ovwian-Aladja and when she could not produce the vehicle documents on demand by the Police, the vehicle was impounded and taken to the Police station for further investigation, while the woman was left at the scene having refused to go along with the Policemen to the station.
“However, on the same night, at about 2105hrs, her husband one Benjamin Dagbo later reported to the DPO at the station that, while the woman was on her way home with her daughter in a commercial tricycle they boarded, she was attacked, robbed and shot dead by a three (3)-man armed robbery gang operating with the same tricycle unknowingly boarded by her, but her 11-year-old daughter survived the attack and escaped unhurt. She was able to narrate how her mother was killed by men of the underworld who are yet to be arrested.
“The Commissioner of Police regrets the unfortunate incident leading to the death of the deceased and commiserates with her family members. He therefore, assures members of the Public, and in particular the immediate family of the deceased, of the commitment of the Police to thoroughly investigate the role played by the Police in the incident and to ensure the arrest of the fleeing Armed Robbers with a view to ensuring that full justice is done without fear or favour.”
When Delta State Government and some other states in the country, banned the operation of motor-cyclists popularly known as Okada-riders, citizens had heaved a sigh of relief.
In the place of Okada, states like Delta approved tricycle popularly called Keke as a major means of transportation as well as taxis inside major towns of the state. The state also approved buses as a means of transportation from one town to the other and even inter-state. Motor-cyclists only operate in the remote areas and villages where there are limited keke and taxis. The state’s policy was seen to have reduced the criminal activities of robbery gangs that operated as motorcyclists.
Now, the criminal gangs have devised other means of robbing innocent passengers. They now drive keke, target and carry unsuspecting passengers and rob same along the way. In some instances, after robbing their targets, they will rain bullets on them.
In Asaba, the state capital, a few months ago, a lady boarded a Keke from Ogbogogo Market axis, heading towards Summit Junction. When the three-man gang in the keke sped off instead of dropping her at the junction she mentioned, she raised alarm. Her alarm attracted policemen at nearby police checkpoint along the ever busy road.
The police team intercepted the tricyle and arrested the gang members and rescued the woman. She is said to be recuperating having been hypnotised by the gang.
But in the case of the late Dagbo, the policemen who ought to have protected her were the ones that allegedly, unknowingly or carelessly, exposed her to the robbers who also killed her.
The state government however, seems to be confused on what next to do. The Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, has recently been criticised for empowering more and more citizens with Keke and in some areas, motorcycles.
In his defence, the state government said it was not yet considering the option of banning Keke as a means of transportation until the governor must have gotten an alternative and acceptable mode of transport for the people in the state.
Mercy Enoch
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