Cops shot victims at close range –Pathologist
A consultant pathologist at the
University of Calabar Teaching Hospital in Calabar, Cross River State,
Dr. Theophilus Ugbem, has told the court that the six victims who were
killed by policemen had bullet wounds from close range gunshots.
Fourteen policemen attached to the
Special Anti-Robbery Squad in the State Police Command were indicted for
the extra judicial killing of a 300-level student in the Department of
Accounting, University of Calabar, Derek Maurice-Enang, and five others
on April 17, 2014 on allegations that the victims were armed robbers.
The policemen, including three senior
officers (names withheld), were indicted for extra judicial killing and
dismissed from the service following the recommendation of a panel set
up by a former Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone
Six Command, Mr. Musa Daura.
At the resumed trial of the dismissed
policemen at the State High Court in Calabar on Thursday, Ugbem, who
carried out the post-mortem, testified that no bullet was retained in
the bodies of the victims, which was an indication that they were all
shot at close range.
During the cross-examination by Mr. Nta
Nta, one of the defence lawyers to the 14 dismissed cops, Ugbem said, “I
did postmortem for six corpses, which were brought to the Anatomy
Department of University of Calabar by the SARS men on April 17, 2014
and my attention was drawn to it on the April 24, 2014.
“The postmortem examination was
conducted on the April 28, 2014. I did not know any Derek because their
names were not on the forms given to me by the policemen.
“The six corpses had bullet wounds on
the chest and no bullet was retained in the body, which is an indication
that the bullets were fired at a close range. There was also
laceration, bruises, cuts in different locations most prominently on
three of those corpses, which is as a result of being tortured or
brutalised.”
Ugbem went further to tender the
certified true copy of the postmortem examination he conducted on the
late Derek Maurice-Enang and five others.
The presiding judge of the state High
Court (4), Justice Obojor Ogar, thereafter adjourned the matter to June 9
and 10, 2016 for continuation in the suit number HC/37C/2016.
The court had on April 6 granted bail to the accused dismissed policemen.
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