Some policemen attached to Maroko police station, Lagos State, have been accused of killing a 24-year old man, Aondona Tavershima and buried him in a shallow grave at Lekki beach.
Five of the suspected policemen are now currently in police detention. The victim, a motorcycle operator, was alleged to have refused to stop when he was accosted by the policemen who were said to be on patrol at about 11am on the fateful day.
“On realizing that he was dead, the policemen picked his corpse and put it behind their patrol vehicle, a Toyota Hilux Van, and covered it with tyres. They drove to the beach and buried him. We were the ones who alerted the family that their brother had been killed and buried,” the eyewitness disclosed.
Narrating the incident to Sunday Sun on phone, Aondona’s elder sister, Linda, said she got to know about the incident on Thursday, November 11, 2014. “I knew that he left for Lekki with his friend and when he did not come back, I assumed that he had gone to spend time with his friends. When I was told that my brother was killed, my people visited the scene and saw the grave. We later discovered that the policemen were from Maroko police station and we went to lodge a complaint. They promised to invite SCID Panti to exhume the body, as it was not their job. At night, they came and exhumed the body and kept it in a mortuary. The DPO later called me and requested that they would pay us N10 million to end the matter. They said we should go home and think about it and get back to them,” Linda alleged.
Similarly, an in-law to the deceased, Dominic David, claimed that he was told that policemen were trying to arrest Aondona and he refused to stop. “They opened fire on him and shot him.
And even when he fell down, they still continued to shoot.
Initially, they wanted to abandon the corpse, but the owner of the house near where he was killed insisted that they must carry the corpse away.”
“They took his body to Lekki beach and buried him in a grave and covered the burial site with leaves and old carton. Unfortunately, some of the people who witnessed the crime knew us very well and alerted us. They promised that Panti was going to investigate the matter but up till date, they have not done anything about it.”
The lawyer representing the family, Barrister Mindia Chibok, said the family intends to legally seek redress on the injustice meted out to the victim. We expect that by now the matter should have been transferred to an appropriate authority and not the same police station where the crime was committed. We hope that the police authority will order a thorough investigation and ensure that the suspects, including those who are currently at large be arrested and made to face the wrath of the law.
I gathered that six of the suspects are currently at large while five others are in police custody.
Confirming the incident, Lagos Police command spokesman, DSP Kenneth Nwosu, said that as soon as the Commissioner of Police for Lagos State got wind of the incident, he ordered an immediate arrest of the suspected policemen who were alleged to have participated in the killing.
“Five policemen are currently being detained, while State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, has since commenced an investigation. If found guilty, the officers will be made to face the wrath of the law,” Nwosu said.
