The independent investigative panel on violations of rights by the defunct SARS set up by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has ordered the Inspector-General of Police and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Commissioner of Police to set up a high powered delegation to visit and condole with the family of a former Minister of State for Finance, Senator Nenadi Usman.
The panel gave the order on Monday after listening to a petition filed before it by the family of George Deyjih Akapson and Senator Usman on behalf of her niece, late Miss Anita Akapson.
The family had alleged that the late Anita was extra-judicially killed and joined DSP Godwin Ngochukwu Wagozie; FCT CP and IGP as respondents.
The chairman of the panel, Justice Suleiman Galadima (retd) while adjourning the petition sine die (indefinitely), commended the police for taking prompt action by charging DSP Wagozie to court.
The chairman, however, ruled that the FCT CP and the IGP high powered delegation should visit the late Anita’s family to commiserate with them.
Earlier, the mother of the deceased, Mrs Esther Akapson, had told the panel that we were informed by her elder daughter on October 13, 2018 that the late Anita was shot by the police and she died as a result of gunshot injuries.
According to her, on the day of the incident, the police blocked the deceased car and shot her.
Mrs Akapson, who said she was a Chief Accountant with the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, told the panel that her daughter graduated from Kent University in the United Kingdom.
“She could have stayed back in the UK to get a job but she chose to come back to Nigeria and serve her fatherland. But what did she get in return? She was murdered,” she told the panel amidst tears.
Describing her daughter as a God-fearing lady, the bereaved mother told the panel that the family had been traumatised since she was killed.
She added that though there no amount of money bring back her daughter, the family wants a N5billion compensation to assuage the trauma the family has passed through.
“We have been traumatised. It has not been easy. No amount of money can bring her back but we are before this panel to seek compensation to assuage the trauma of the family,” she said.
According to her, “Anita was an asset to the family but her life was cut short because of the carelessness of a policeman.”
The mother informed that since the unfortunate incident, there had not been any delegation from the police to condole with the family.
Counsel for the police, James Idachaba, expressed surprise that the family filed the petition before the panel, saying that the police had done the needful by dismissing Wagozie and further charged him to court.
He informed that the former police officer was tried before the High Court of the FCT and sentenced to 16 years imprisonment.
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