A policeman, Sergeant David Moses, on Friday confessed before the independent investigative panel on rights violation by the defunct SARS and other police units set up by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that he shot a brother to a petitioner, Simon Aondofa Nyamkwange, in Abuja, claiming that the suspect later died in the hospital.
Moses made the confession while testifying in a petition, filed before the 11-man panel by Abraham Nyamkwange, on behalf of his late brother, Simon Aondofa Nyamkwange, marked 2020/IIP-SARS/ABJ/142, alleging the extra-judicial killing of his brother.
The petitioner had joined the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) Wise Zone 3 Police Station, Mamman Joseph Barakwai; IPO Ibrahim; Officer Aunde Peter; Officer Mrs Aunde; Vershima Zaki; Commissioner of Police FCT and the Inspector General of Police as respondents in the petition.
According to Sergeant Moses, the deceased was shot at Eterna filling station at Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, when he allegedly struggled with him in an unsuccessful attempt to snatch his rifle from him (Moses).
The Sergeant stated that on the midnight of April 27, 2020, while he was guarding the filling station with his superior officer, ASP Danjuma Kadiri Ogwu, five men wielding shiny cutlasses scaled the perimeter fence of the station and he shot one of them, the late Nyamkwange, who made a futile effort to collect his rifle.
He informed that seeing what happened to one of them, the other four men took to their heels immediately, adding that the deceased did not, however, die on the spot.
According to him, this was the reason he contacted CSP Emeka Onyia, Police Admin Officer, who in turn informed Wuse Police Station to provide a vehicle to convey the victim to the Wuse General Hospital, Abuja, for treatment.
Sergeant Moses informed the panel that he later went to the Wuse General Hospital to visit the late Nyamkwange and that it was there he learnt of his death.
While being cross-examined by counsel for the petitioner, I. J Mbatsaddue, Moses said that the men who scaled the fence of the station only held shiny cutlasses.
He, however, informed the panel that a jackknife was later found in possession of the late Nyamkwange when he was admitted to the hospital.
Also testifying for the respondents, Danjuma Kadiri Ogwu, informed the panel that he was posted as the officer-in-charge of security at the filling station, adding that he was present on the night of the incident.
According to the Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), though he was not on the same spot with Sergeant Moses to witness the shooting, he heard noise confirming a public disturbance at the station.
He told the panel that it was Moses who informed him of his encounter with the five men whom he said jumped the perimeter fence to gain an illegal entry into the filling station.
On cross-examination by Mbatsaddue, ASP Ogwu, who testified as to the second respondents’ witness, told the panel that he did not hear the sound of the gun on that very night the victim was shot.
Meanwhile, Dr Garba Tetengi SAN, who stood in for the chairman of the panel, Justice Suleiman Galadima (retd), ordered the Chief Medical Director, Wuse General Hospital or his representative to appear before the panel on December 1, 2021, to explain the circumstances of Nyamkwange’s death of the victim.
The panel also ordered that autopsy be conducted on the remains of the deceased by the hospital, the report of which should be brought before it and afterwards release the corpse to the family for burial.
The petitioner, Abraham Nyamkwange, had on November 1, when testifying pleaded for an order of panel for the release of the remains of his brother for proper burial by the family and compensation to enable him to take care of the deceased wife and children.
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