A group of lawyers, Enugu-Ezike Lawyers’ Forum has condemned the alleged sexual assault and killing of a 28-year-old graduate of the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu, Ifeoma Abugu, by some officers and men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Federal Capital Territory Police Command, Abuja.
Punch reported that three policemen had on September 10, 2020, around 5pm, stormed the residence of Ifeoma’s fiancé, Afam Ugwunwa, at Wumba village in the Lokogoma area of Abuja to arrest him, but he was not at home; instead, they arrested Ifeoma and took her to an undisclosed Police Station.
Efforts to know the Police Station was unsuccessful – until Ugwunwa got a call the next day that Ifeoma had died and her corpse had been deposited in the morgue.
The FCT Commissioner of Police, Bala Ciroma, ordered a discreet investigation into the case and a post-mortem on the corpse to unravel the cause of her death.
The group, which condemned the degrading murder of Ifeoma in a statement, stated that her death was one too many in the hands of SARS personnel.
The statement, signed by the Chairman, Justice for Ifeoma Committee, Enugu-Ezike Lawyers’ Forum, Prof. Uwakwe Abugu, stated that her death was the height of police brutality and arrant disregard for the lives of the citizens they were paid to protect, adding that it was determined to get to the root of the matter.
The statement read in part, “We are the umbrella body of all lawyers from Enugu-Ezike, Igbo-Eze North LGA of Enugu State. We issued this statement as the immediate relatives and mourners of the late Miss Stella Ifeoma Abugu, a native of Ugbaike community in Enugu-Ezike, who was gruesomely murdered in the hands of the operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police Force, Abuja, on September 11, 2020.
“We also issue this statement in pursuance of our oaths as legal practitioners to defend and promote the cause of justice, and our bounding duty to seek justice for our sister, her immediate family, Enugu State and humanity in general.
“We condemn in strongest and unmistaken terms the inhumane and degrading treatment and consequent murder of our daughter in circumstances that conjure all trappings of illegality, unconstitutionality, criminality, abuse of office and power, and man’s inhumanity to man. This is one death too many in the hands of the operatives of SARS as the Nigerian media is replete with reports of similar treatments and murder of other innocent Nigerians in different parts of the country.
“We appreciate that, come what may, Ifeoma cannot be brought back to tell her story. But circumstances do not lie and this forum is poised to get to the bottom of the matter through all legal and constitutional means available to us.”
The group further urged the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to ensure transparency and diligence in the investigation of Ifeoma’s death.