LAST week, a soldier allegedly shot a 28-year-old father of two, Joseph Pesu, dead in Delta State while enforcing the lockdown order imposed on the state by the Ifeanyi Okowa administration as part of efforts to address the coronavirus pandemic. The incident occurred on Thursday, April 2, at Ada Val Arenyenka Street in Ugbuwangue community in Warri South Local Government Area. It was the second day of the lockdown directive issued by Governor Okowa, and the victim, Joseph Pesu, was reportedly trying to purchase medicine for his pregnant wife when he was shot dead by the killer soldier. Confirming the killing, the state police command said that it had commenced investigation into the incident. The chairman of Warri South Local Government, Mr. Michel Tidi, indicated that he had reported the case to the appropriate authorities, and that a meeting held at the office of the Police Area Commander in Warri over the incident, at which representatives of the Nigerian Army, other security agencies, the community head and the head of the victim’s family were all present, resolved that the erring soldier would be brought to justice. On his part, the victim’s father, Mr. Monday Pesu, expressed the belief that his son was killed on purpose, asking the military authorities to prevail on the killer soldier to reveal those who commissioned him to carry out the act.
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Naturally, the cold-blooded murder led to protests in the state and beyond. For instance, a group, the Midwest Movement/Edo-Delta Indigenous Peoples’ Welfare Association and the Ijaw Women Connect Worldwide condemned the killing, calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to order the Nigerian Army to restrain its men and officers from carrying out any further act of violence against residents of Warri or any other place in Delta State and the country at large. In a statement by its spokesman, Dr. Pedro Obaseki, MMEDIP urged the president to order the immediate withdrawal of soldiers enforcing the coronavirus lockdown, positing that such duties were the constitutional preserve of the Nigeria Police Force. The statement added: “We do not want a repeat of incidents in the past where communities experienced massacres in the hands of armed men in uniform acting ostensibly to avenge the alleged killing of their colleagues by civilians. Sad cases in point are those of the Afisiere community in the Ughelli North Local Government of Delta State in 2006 and the famed Odi massacre in Bayelsa State in 1999.” Similarly, the Deputy President of the Senate, Mr. Ovie Omo-Agege, deplored the extrajudicial killing, calling for an investigation into the incident.
To say the least, it is distressing that a young man trying to cater for the health needs of his pregnant wife was brutally killed by a soldier enforcing a Covid-19 lockdown order. This is tragically ironic because both the state government that gave the order and the victim were trying to preserve life, one communal and the other individual. In our view, there is no reason at all to justify the killing of a man trying to preserve life. And even in war time, people in desperate situations strive to obtain succour. In rolling out the lockdown order, the Delta State government certainly did not intend that citizens needing urgent medical attention should be prevented from doing so. And even if the late Pesu had indeed committed an offence, the proper, civilised and legal thing to do would have been to hand him over to the police for prosecution. However, apparently basking in the opportunity to exercise their powers over the ‘bloody civilians’ once again, the killer sergeant and his colleagues carried on like lords of the manor, killing a man in cold blood.
Sadly, over a week after the dastardly incident, the authorities of the Nigerian Army have yet to issue an official statement on it. This is puzzling, because the same authorities gave an update on the case of the two soldiers caught on tape vowing to rape and infect women with HIV in the state, in the aftermath of the protests that attended the killing of Pesu. We urge the military authorities to act fast and refrain from giving the impression that the case has been swept under the carpet. The killer sergeant must be made to account for his action in accordance with the laws of the land. And if his colleagues are found after a thorough investigation to have been complicit in the murder, they must be given their just deserts. We urge the Delta State government to take an active interest in the case and ensure that justice is done. It should also take up the responsibility of caring for the family left behind by the deceased. In addition, it should take steps to ensure that acts of brutality by law enforcement agents enforcing the lockdown order cease forthwith.
We commiserate with the family and friends of citizen Joseph Pesu and wish them the fortitude to bear the loss.
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