A solicitor and Advocate of the courts of Nigeria, Adelaja Okon Esq., has petitioned the Inspector General of Police over the extrajudicial killings of five persons allegedly accused of kidnapping in Uokha, Owan East local government area of Edo state.
The five persons who were apprehended by a local vigilante and hunters in the area were burnt alive on Friday, 16 July 2021.
The alleged kidnappers were believed to be responsible for a number of kidnappings on Okha-Afuze road.
Standard Gazette crime correspondent Festus Alenkhe had gathered that the kidnappers had attacked a Utility Jeep and abducted the occupants.
Suspected kidnappers before they were burnt
The alleged kidnappers led their victims into the bush after setting the Jeep ablaze.
SG gathered that local Vigilante and some audacious residents immediately mobilized, tracked and rescued the victims.
Five of the alleged hoodlums, Standard Gazette gathered, were captured, beaten and burnt alive before the arrival of the police.
In a three page petition dated 17 July 2021 and signed by D.A Okun Esq and obtained by Standard Gazette, the lawyer described the action as “Illegal, Senseless, Unlawful, Unauthorized and Unjusticiable Murder/Killing.”
The petition stated that Mr Amenyor Agbegbe of Uzebba hired the deceased persons as labourers to work on his farm in Uzebba in the Edo state’s Owan West local government area.
The petition said that “while the clearing of weeds in the farm was ongoing, some hunters and persons in the name of vigilante members accosted the deceased persons and tagged them as kidnappers.
“The people took laws into their hands and executed five of them, and after that, set them ablaze.”
“Before the arrival of the police, they have all been burnt to ashes”, the petition claimed.
The victims were Ugochukwu Ada-Ebonyi state, Emmanuel Giwa-Taraba state, Arakunyang Dansabe-Taraba state, Ete-Cross River state and Emian-Ondo state.
Two of the escapees, Rimamtanung Musa from Taraba State and Rimamyati Dansabe, a younger brother to one of the unfortunate victims, narrated the ordeal.
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Rimamyati told STANDARD Gazette that” I was in the farm with my brother when we saw the people with guns who said they are looking for kidnappers.
“I told them that we are all farmers hired by one Uzebba man, Mr Agbegbe, to clear weeds in his farm. They insisted that we must follow them.
“I then brought out my phone and called our Oga (boss), who hired us to the farm to work. They started shooting guns. I was fast to escape, but they took five others away.
“I only heard that they have killed all of them and burnt them. I really want justice on the matter”.
The farm’s owner, Mr Agbegbe from Uzebba in Owan West local government area, said, “The people that came to carry my workers crossed their boundary and came to our farm in Uokha to carry my workers.
“Why did they not hand them over to the police? They were just barbaric. I was the one who quickly rushed to call the police, but before the arrival of the police, they have killed and burnt the five of them.
“They are not kidnappers at all. They have been working with me since February 2021, and I pay them N1,500 anytime they come to work. I am still in pain over their deaths”.
Adelaja Okon Esq had written in the petition that “the act of those hunters have robbed these five labourers who were craving for their basic existential necessity, their right to life and dignity of their human person.
“They have placed their families in perpetual agony unjustifiably. It is an act too much to bear as it is one crime too many”.
The Assistant Inspector-General of Polie, Zone 5, Edo State Commissioner of Polie, the Divisional Police officers, Afuze and Sabongida Ora Divisions and Department of State service were copied in the petition.
The lawyer is asking the relevant bodies to investigate the murders as “the hunters have set the law in motion against themselves” and pray that the law takes its course.
Edo State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Bello Kontongs, said the deceased suspects would have been brought to the police station for further investigation rather than the mob action that led to their killings.