The scene could easily have passed for one of the surreal fibs from James Bond’s Hollywood phantomic thrillers: A young chap, obviously a crime suspect, was sitting on the ground, handcuffed and tied in the legs with a rope. He was yelping, begging hysterically: “Officer, officer, I go tell you everything! Na my friend deceived me! I no know anything …!”
His ‘adversary,’ a gun-toting man, totally unfazed by the suspect’s shrill cries, reached for bullets from one of his colleagues near him, leisurely loaded his gun and in a shocking quirk of villainy, shot the suspect dead at close range!
Then, nimbly, the suspect’s body was dumped in a police patrol vehicle at the scene and the trigger-happy man and his colleagues drove off. The summary execution took less than two minutes.
As a matter of fact, the only telltale sign that the killer and his colleagues were policemen was the police patrol vehicle that accompanied them. Otherwise, the gun-toting man could have passed for an armed robber or a bandit dealing with a captive because he was in mufti.
Besides, his appearance did not bespeak that of a policeman. He looked more like one of the egregious ‘Yahoo yahoo’ boys in his funny, spooky hairstyle and beard!
That scene occurred penultimate Sunday in Effurun Roundabout, Delta State. It is one of the seamiest sights that could involve a policeman and a defenceless citizen. It is the vilest an gent of the law could go in dealing with a suspect who is not only unarmed but he is totally hapless, tied and in handcuffs. It is a most cold-blooded murder, simply put.
A viral video of the incident trended last week from Tuesday, setting the ever vibrant social media abuzz with vitriolic outbursts. Angry Nigerians condemned the extrajudicial killing and demanded justice for the victim.
According to the state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Bright Edafe, the incident occurred on Sunday, April 26, 2026 when operatives attached to the Area Command, Effurun, Delta State, acted on intelligence from members of the public.
He said the deceased, later identified as 28-year-old Oghenemene Ogidi, was apprehended while attempting to waybill a parcel said to contain a Beretta pistol with four rounds of ammunition, adding that the operatives were deployed to the scene to take the suspect into custody.
“However, the officer leading the team (later identified as ASP Nuhu Usman) discharged his firearm in violation of Force Order 237 and the Standard Operating Procedure of the Nigeria Police Force, leading to the suspect’s death,” Edafe added.
The police spokesman said the Delta State Commissioner of Police, Yemi Oyeniyi, immediately ordered the arrest of the officer, ASP Nuhu Usman, and his transfer to the State Headquarters in Asaba for disciplinary action.
He added: “The officer has been queried and subsequently transferred to the Force Headquarters, Abuja, where he will appear before the Force Disciplinary Committee for immediate disciplinary sanction and prosecution.”
Another statement issued in Abuja by the Force Spokesman, Anthony Placid, said the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Tunji Disu,has approved the recommendation of the Force Disciplinary Committee (FDC) for the dismissal and prosecution of Nuhu Usman, the trigger-happy police officer and others found culpable for the killing of the suspect in Efunrun.
Placid said the FDC, alongside other internal disciplinary processes, has concluded its review of the incident and established that the police officer ”acted in gross violation of Force Order 237 and other extant regulations governing the use of firearms.”
However, contrary to the claim by the police, the suspect’s mother, Madam Campaign Ogidi, said her son did not waybill any parcel because he left home empty handed that fateful day. Rather, according to the woman, who had been inconsolable over the cruel murder of her son, it was a friend who had called him to pick up a waybill for him from an address he described to him (Mene). He said her son was not a violent or troublesome person.
His elder brother, Victory Ogidi, corroborating their mother, said his slain younger brother, was not a criminal but a plumber working with him. Mene, he said, was also a musician. He said both of them picked the plumbing trade from their late father. Victory said Mene also took after their father in pursuing music career even though the latter did not go public with music before his death.
ASP Usman’s action in brazenly killing Mene is an insufferable abuse of firearms deserving to be visited with the weight of the law in a commensurate measure because, just as the police rightly said, no uniform confers the right to take life outside the provisions of the law. In other words, except acting in self-defence such as when an armed suspect moves to attack a law enforcement officer or a court of competent jurisdiction orders it, no agent of the law has the right to kill a suspect or anyone with his firearm.
The bizarre incident highlights the vexed issue of police brutality, excessive use of force and accountability within the Nigeria Police Force, which the authorities must continue to address.
The police authorities have, no doubt, been responsive to the incident so far and have handled the matter with the alacrity it deserves. However, it should not end there. The authorities must go beyond punitive measures and dig deep into the circumstances surrounding the bizarre incident.
While the Force is blessed with a considerable and increasing number of fine, well educated and highly professional officers serving with integrity in their respective beats, a miscellany of malefactors also abound in the police who continue to spoil the image of the Force. This is an example.
Overwhelming public opinion suggests that there is more to the extrajudicial killing than meets the eye. We feel so strongly too. Police authorities must, therefore, consider and pursue the cue that the trigger-happy police officer could possibly be acting for a gun-running cartel. It is plausible that the cartel had engaged the officer to eliminate the suspect to prevent him from spilling the beans.
In the first place, the slain suspect’s mother said her son was called on phone by an undisclosed friend to pick a waybill for him, not to waybill a parcel as the police had claimed. The deceased might have thus been a victim of circumstance.
But the puzzle is, who was that friend who sent him to pick up the parcel containing a gun and four rounds of ammunition? To what end would the arm be deployed? These are obvious posers the police should be raising beyond merely punishing their trigger-happy officer and it is curious and highly disappointing that they are not doing that.
The suspect was begging ASP Usman to spare him so he could tell him “everything.” A well-meaning officer of the law, who is not deliberately eliminating a vital evidence, would have been curious to know what the suspect knew, as a cushy way of nailing those who probably sent him to pick up the waybill. Yet, ASP Usman instead gunned him down in cold blood!
The claim by the Delta State police PRO that Usman’s case was akin to a spiritual attack is tendentious. We disagree. There is hardly anything to suggest that he was acting under a spell. Rather, we suspect that he acted deliberately. Anyone who watches the less-than-two-minutes viral video of the summary execution well will agree that the officer knew what he was doing.
ASP Usman and his team should be thoroughly investigated. The police must go the whole hog and pursue all the yearning clues, which include ferreting out the elusive friend who sent the Mene to pick up the controversial parcel. A thorough probe of the incident could lead to a bust of a gun-running cartel and the possible complicity of some venal men of the law.
Let the police authorities continue, through reforms and periodic cleansing exercises, to gradually rid the Force of malevolent elements who comprise their professional integrity. Let the recruitment processes henceforth also be sanitized and tightened to bring in only good and competent personnel imbued with strong moral character to position the Force for modern policing.
