From Chidi Asonye, Umuahia
A professional nurse, Miss Chinwendu Benedict Osigwe of 16 Alozie street Off Osisioma, Aba has alleged that a Nigeria soldier on October 23, 2020, shot and killed his younger brother, Mr.Ebere Osigwe, in cold blood, at Osigwe Lane off Ngwa Road,Aba,by 9.00am in the morning.
According to a Press Statement endorsed by the Chairman, Abia State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Comrade John Emejor, Mrs Osigwe made the allegation while testifying before Abia State Judicial Panel Of Inquiry on Police Brutality, extra-Judicial Killings and other related matters headed by the former Retired Chief Judge of Abia State, Hon. Justice Sunday Imo, at Aguiyi Ironsi Conference Centre, Umuahia
She explained on that fateful day, she received a call from her neighbor, who told her that his brother was “strolling to a nearby house to charge his phone when the army stopped him, ordered him to raise both hands up.”
Despite that he obeyed the orders of the soldiers, a trigger-happy one among them shot her unarmed brother severally and watched him bleed to death for committing no crime.
In her narration to the members of the judicial panel, she also revealed that some people that volunteered to take his younger brother to the hospital were scared away by these soldiers.
Miss Osigwe later went to Cameroon Police Station,Aba, to report the incident but was turned down, as she was told by the cops she met on ground, “there is nothing the police can do as her brother was allegedly shot by an army man.”
It was at this point that she contacted Journalists, who according to her, assisted her to place the injustice at the public domain.
She prayed that the sum of a billion Naira compensation be paid to the family of the deceased for upkeep and training of the children of the deceased that are five in number with the oldest child being 7 years old.
She also pleaded that job be given to the wife of the deceased and herself, as she is currently working at private clinic in Aba.
The matter, with suit number JUD/AB/73/2020 was adjourned to February 17, 2021 for the respondents to cross examined the witness, Miss Chinwendu Benedict Osigwe.
