Emotionally devastated Delta family petitions Police AIG, Zone 5 to explain how their missing brother could have withdrawn N2.5m from own account nine days after the CID, Delta Police Command said he was killed by robbers while in police custody.
By Egufe Yafugborhi, Warri
CAN a dead man personally draw cash from his corporate account nine days after men of the DeltaState Police Command affirmed he was shot dead by armed robbers while in police custody?
This is the poser the Odumosor Family of Beneku Village, Ndokwa East Local GovernmentArea of Delta has submitted to the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 5, Benin City, while asking the Delta State Police Command to provide answers to the disappearance of Chief Beedorf Odumosor, a member of the family since 2012.
In a 13- paragraph petition by the family counsel, Choice Umode, the Udumosor Family accused the State Criminal Investigation Department, CID, of fabricating facts to cover up what they consider as “extra judicial murder” of Chief Odumusor in alleged conspiracy with perceived political enemy of the missing Beedorf.
According to the petition, the family’s worry began on December 30, 2012 when they received a report that the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, of the State Criminal Investigation, Delta State Police Command had arrested Chief Odumusor along with his Toyota 4-Runner jeep number plated ABH 415 AA. The police team was said to have been led by one Sgt Julius Robinson attached to the Anti-Kidnap Section of the Delta Police.
Sgt. Robinson, the family noted, refused to grant them access to the detained Chief Odumosor. It took a court ruling to force the Delta Police to respond to the family request to see their arrested member following a fundamental rights application by the family heard on May 2, 2013. According to the petition, the court ordered “the Delta State Commissioner of Police to produce the said Chief Beedorf Odumosor in court within 48 hours”.
Upon service of the court order on the Police Commission, rather than produce the suspect in court, the petitioners said, “One Sgt Adama Emmanuel on the 15th May 2013, deposed to a counter affidavit alleging that he was reliably informed by Sgt. Robinson that Chief Beedorf (supposed suspect) was shot dead by armed robbers along Ogwashi-Uku/Kwale Expressway”
Prominent politician
Sgt Emmanuel’s affidavit, the petition noted, further revealed that a prominent politician in Ndokwa East provided the information which instigated the police arrest of Chief Odumosor.
The said politician “swore and promised to deal squarely with Chief Odumosor after he emerged winner of a major elective office in the 2011 general elections in Delta State, a threat the missing Chief Odumosor never took seriously.”
In its call on the AIG Zone 5 for thorough investigation of the matter, the Odumosors are strongly of the view that the allegation by the CID, Asaba that Beedorf was shot dead by armed robbers on same December 30, 2012 he was arrested cannot be true. “In that Chief Beedorf Odumosor personally made a withdrawal of N2,500,000 (Two Million Five Hundred Naira) from his corporate account, Chief Beedorf Odumosor & Sons, with Ecobank Plc, Asaba on the 8th of January 2013”, a copy of the bank statement, the petitioners attached to their complaint and made available to Vanguard Metro, VM.
The petitioners further asked the AIG Zone 5 to discountenance the confessional statement police allegedly extracted from the missing Odumosor which he was said to have thumb-printed. The statement, the family noted, “cannot be true or correct as Chief Odumosor is literate and can read and write and also sign his signature, which fact can be evidenced by his signing cheque leaves of his current account which he operates with Ecobank.”
The petitioners suspect foul play, stressing that the CID, Asaba, particularly Sgt Robinson and the Ndokwa East politician who pushed for his arrest, have a case to answer. “The fabrication that Chief Odumosor was shot dead in December 2012 without his family being allowed to identify his corpse or collect same for burial from the police is indefensible when the same person walked into a bank and personally withdrew cash from his own account nine days after. Even more baffling is the fact that the Toyota jeep belonging to Beedorf is still being held by the CID, Asaba.
The petitioners who accused the CID Asaba of perpetrating a “great deal of injustice” concluded that findings of their demanded investigation of the department would reposition public confidence in the Nigeria Police Force.
When contacted on the matter, Police Public Relations Officer, Delta Command, DSP Celestina Kalu said she was not in position to provide any information on the matter as it began long before she came into office aside the point that the petition is before the AIG Zone 5 in Benin.
When contacted the AIG Zone 5, Hashimu Salihu Argungu, affirmed receiving the petition and assured that the matter was still under investigation.
When contacted on the matter, Police Public Relations Officer, Delta Command, DSP Celestina Kalu said she was not in position to provide any information on the matter as it began long before she came into office aside the point that the petition is before the AIG Zone 5 in Benin.
When contacted the AIG Zone 5, Hashimu Salihu Argungu, affirmed receiving the petition and assured that the matter was still under investigation.
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