Information available to 247ureports.com indicates that the Mobile police [MOPOL] officer arrested and detained for the murder of an Okada man, Umar Danmichika, on the hot afternoon of Wednesday September 26, 2012 at the Kaduna Stadium roundabout – has yet to be presented to the Courts for arraignment.
According to an official of the Kaduna State government, the MOPOL officer remains in the custody of the police in Kaduna pending the completion of an ongoing investigation. He assured that once the investigation is completed, the MOPOL officer will be presented to the courts for further legal actions.
The police commissioner of Kaduna State had pledged justice will be served. In his words, “We are doing something about the police man that killed the okada man. The culprit will be charged to court for murder. The law must take its full course; I have already briefed the Inspector General of police who have given me the mandate to go ahead with full investigation into the matter. We don’t train officers to kill innocent people in the society and take the law into their hands. We however appeal to law abiding citizens of the state to go about their normal activities as we are on top of the matter”.
It is recalled on the day of the incident eyewitness on the ground indicated that the murdered Okada rider, Umar Danmichika, had parked his motorcycle briefly to collect money from a customer when he was shot in the head in close range by a police officer in a moving vehicle.
Other witnesses indicated that the deceased had just finished eating from a local restaurant, and had yet to pay for his food when he saw a passenger, and rushed to drop the passenger before coming to effect payment, but unfortunately could not come back. In his words, “wallahi, he was deliberately shot because the boy was not on the road, he was just by the road side parked and sitting on the motorcycle, so how could he have committed any offence that will warrant him be killed like that. Infact he died instantly”.
Also, the woman who sold the food to the deceased, Mrs Aderonke Taiwo told our correspondent that the deceased “is my regular customer, he bought 80 naira food, he has not paid me when he left to drop the passenger, but I knew he would have come back to pay me, until I heard that he was the one that was killed by the gun shots I heard shortly after he left my place. He is my very good customer and his death is very painful and unfortunate. In fact, God will punish the police man that killed that innocent boy for nothing”.
It remains uncertain when the MOPOL officer will be arraigned in court for murder.
An eye witness of that incident told me on phone that the deceased, Umar Danmichika, was shot dead by the MOPOL man because he was following the MOPOL van chanting “kariya ne, kariya ne” on his bike. The MOPOL were heading to town and chanting their slogan songs when the deceased was following them at close range and was chanting (it’s a lie, it’s a lie) up to a distance when one of the MOPOL could no longer trust the boy due to the persistent insecurity in the country, then shot dead his victim. This is an eye witness report.
But another version I first heard from those who were not even at the scene of the incident, said the deceased Umar Danmichika, was trying to climb the wall of the Ahmadu Bello Stadium where he was shot.