Members of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), on Tuesday, stormed the Rivers State Police Command at Moscow Road, in protest against the death of a 41-year-old man, identified as OlafuroPeterside.
Peterside was allegedly killed in the presence of his wife and three children by a stray bullet from a mobile police officer attached to Gombe State Police Command.
According to the Guardian, on August 4, the deceased, while with his family, was hit by a stray bullet from the gun of the police officer at a popular bar in Elekehia area of the state.
The protesters, in their numbers, carried placards with various inscriptions and called on the police to ensure that the officer is brought to justice.
Addressing the protesters in front of the Command, the state’s Commissioner of Police, Emeka Nwonyi, assured that investigations were ongoing, while the trigger-happy officer had been sent to the homicide section of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID).
Nwonyi, while assuring that the police would do internal cleansing, pledged that the matter would not be swept under the carpet, adding that the proesters should also allow the police do its work.
He said: “Death of your son, who was allegedly shot by the police, is not just an offence against Ijaw people, it is an offence against the State and humanity, and anyone that takes law into his hands will not go unpunished.
“The day the incident happened, I personally ordered that the case be transferred immediately to the homicide section of the State Criminal Investigation Department. I also invited the wife and had a direct talk with her to know what happened on the day of the incident.
“I want to assure you that we will do our internal cleansing and consequently on the advice of the Department of Public Prosecution (DPP) charge the case to court when it is due. But you must allow the due process to follow its course.”
Nwonyi re-emphasised that the police would remain one of the organisations that have an internal mechanism to sanitise its personnel, stressing that no individual that commits a crime in the guise of wearing the police uniform would be set free.
Reacting, IYC President, Jonathan Olokpobiri, said the group would not let the matter die.
He said: “We are using this medium to advise our brothers that we will never let matters die until justice is served, and the culprit punished for his crime. As a people, we have a duty not to allow police or anyone compromise the entire process until justice is fully served in this matter.”
