Body Of UNIBEN Student Allegedly Shot By Police Exhumed For Autopsy

The corpse of 22-year-old Ibrahim Momodu, a final year
student of the University of Benin, who was allegedly shot
dead by a police officer, last Wednesday, was yesterday
exhumed amid heavy police presence, to undergo an
autopsy.
This came as the Governor of Edo State, Adams
Oshiomhole, set up of a panel of enquiry to unravel the
alleged killing.
The police command in the state still claims the deceased
was a robber who was shot while trying to evade police
arrest, but the family said their son was never a criminal and
was shot unjustly by the police who they alleged went as far
as burying him without the family's knowledge.
The DPO who allegedly shot the deceased, it was learnt, was
being investigated, following a vow by the state
Commissioner of Police, Funsho Adebanjo, to get to the root
of the matter.
Civil society organisations and students staged a peaceful
protest last Tuesday, calling for the investigation of the
matter.
Executive Director of the African Network for Environment
and Economic Justice, ANEEJ, Rev. David Ugolor, who led
other civil society organisations to the family of the deceased
and to the cemetery, commended the state government for
investigating the matter, just as he condemned the alleged
extra judicial killing of the student.
It was observed as the body was taken away by a team of
pathologists, that the deceased was buried in the cloths he
wore the day he was shot, and that to some members of
the family counts for something as they believe that depicted
a hurried burial after committing a crime.
Counsel to the family of the deceased Barr.Jeff Uworghiren,
described as wicked "the allegation by the police that the
deceased was a criminal. But I am happy we have our
pathologist ready so we will see how it goes. We are only
asking for justice, this is a test case for the new chairman of
the Police Service Commission".