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For the past three months, Mrs. Beatrice Okeke has missed the charming smile and the gentle touch of her husband. Even her two children are not left out as the constant telephone calls when the man of the house was not around have vanished, a situation the woman and the kids find very difficult to live with.
Beatrice’s husband, Mr. Peter Okeke, was a constable in the Nigeria Police Force before he was killed in a gruesome manner. Okeke was one of the two persons shot by soldiers attached to the Reynolds Construction Company in Onne, Rivers State. Okeke and his friend, Mr. Tombari Nnaa, were said to have died instantly at Onne Bypass in Eleme Local Government Area, where they were shot.
Though the reason the soldiers opened fire on the harmless people has not been fully ascertained, army authorities are saying that the soldiers shot Okeke and Nnaa in self-defence. The deceased were said to have earlier refused to obey an order from the soldiers to remove a trip of sand blocking a particular road in Onne. Peter, according to army authorities, was said to be in mufti at the time of the incident and had nothing to identify himself as a policeman.
But the family members that Okeke left behind are agitated and seeking justice. Though the army and the police in Rivers have set up a joint panel to investigate Peter and Nnaa’s death, Beatrice believes not much is being done to ensure that justice prevails.
One could easily agree with Peter’s widow because since the panel began sitting in April, nothing has been heard about its activities and how far it has gone in ensuring that justice prevails. Beatrice, who spoke with CRIME DIGEST in Port Harcourt, said she was surprised to notice that the two soldiers who allegedly shot his husband were still moving about freely.
“I saw the two soldiers that killed my husband. They were smoking cigarette on the day they set up the panel. My in-law too saw them that morning. I tried to go and meet them to ask them why they killed my husband, but someone held me back. What I want is justice. My husband should not die for nothing because he did not commit any offence,” Beatrice, who was in tears as she spoke, lamented.
She described her late husband as an easy-going person. Expressing surprise that the soldiers could turn the nozzle of the gun against her husband, who had contributed to crime fighting, Beatrice, who is also a constable, appealed to the authorities not to allow his husband to die in vain.
She said that her two children had taken ill since they had not seen their father for a long time. Beatrice noted that she was three months pregnant, adding that she had conceived before her husband was killed.
She said, “They have grown fond of their dad and when they did not see him or receive his constant phone calls, they began to develop illness. I have been taking them to the hospital. Our first son is eight years old, while the last child is two years old. I am three months pregnant and the most painful aspect of all this is that our third child will not have the opportunity of knowing his father.”
When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ben Ugwuegbulam, said he would get back to CRIME DIGEST the moment he ascertained how far the panel had gone with its findings. Ugwuegbulam, however, appealed to Beatrice to be patient, assuring that the police would always protect their own.
Also, an army spokesman, Major Aminu Iliyasu, maintained that the joint investigative panel was not sleeping over the matter, even as he assured that the police and army authorities would brief the media on the outcome of the panel’s findings. Iliyasu explained that contrary to the thinking that the operations of the panel were shrouded in secrecy, nothing would be hidden from members of the public.
He expressed his sympathy with the family of Okeke and urged the wife to exercise patience, adding that everything would be done to ensure that justice prevailed. The remains of Beatrice’s husband were interred on May 13, 2011 in his hometown in Ezinihitte Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State.
| By Chukwudi Akasike, Port Harcourt | |
| Saturday, 28 May 2011 Source : punchng.com |
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