A lawyer based in Ovwian, Udu Local Government Area of Delta State, H.O. Uwarah Esq has petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Egbetokun, the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 5 in Benin-City, the Delta State Commissioner of Police, CP Wale Abass and the Director, Department of State Security, DSS, over the alleged sudden disappearance and murder of one Mr. Angel-Owei Major, a musician while in the custody of the Police in Ogbe-Ijoh community, Warri South-West Local Government Area.
Uwarah who is of H.O. Uwarah & Associates handed down the petition on behalf of the Nanakumoh and Tanga families over the mysteries surrounding the death or whereabouts of Mr. Major.
The petition which was dated 26th July 2023, was received by the Area Commander of the Nigeria Police Force, Burutu.
The legal practitioner said the victim is “mysteriously missing/dead”. He alleged that he died at the hands of the Police headed by the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, Ogbe-Ijoh Community, Mr. Royal Onwuma.
Uwarah insisted that the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, Ogbe-Ijoh Community and any/all of his culprits must account for the sudden disappearance/murder of the victim.
Narrating how the victim suddenly disappeared from Police custody in the petition on 7th of July 2023, Uwarah said he(Mr. Major) suddenly took ill with some mental disorder and as a result of the sudden and “unexpected development”, his families promptly took him for some treatments and while he was undergoing the treatments, he fled.
Part of the petition read thus, “On or about the 10th of July, 2023 while his families were searching for(Mr. Major) whereabout, some yet to be identified Indigenes of Ogbe-Ijoh in Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State attacked a cousin of Mr. Major at Ogbe-Ijoh who narrowly escaped the attack, whereupon they later bounced on the friend to the cousin, beating hell out of his life before taking him to the Ogbe-Ijoh police station headed by Mr. Major(a son, husband, father, uncle and brother) was responsible for the murder of their kinsman in a village within the Ogbe-Ijoh territory.”
The lawyer noted that the said kinsman who laid the complaints to the Ogbe-Ijoh police station had buried the said murdered victim prior to the complaint.
She said while the complaint laid before the DPO was still pending and the friend to the Cousin of Mr. Major was still under detention in the Police station after severe beatings, they went about hunting for the relatives of Mr. Major to harm and murder.
Uwarah said the matter was brought before the Pere (King) of Ogbe-Ijoh Kingdom or intervention in order to avoid further crisis in the volatile terrain which he “graciously, sincerely and promptly” intervened while the arrest and investigation of the suspect were still pending.
She pointed that “While our clients were searching for the whereabouts of their son, husband, father, uncle and brother(Mr. Major), an information came to our clients that some yet-to-be-identified persons or group of persons has caught Me. Major and taken to the Ogbe-Ijoh police station.
“On the premise of the above information, Mr. Major’s families went to ascertain where it was confirmed to them by the DPO that the suspect of the kinsmen of the alleged murdered person was brought to him with gunshot on his limbs. Confirming the fact from the DPO directly, our clients requested and appealed to the DPO to move the victim(Mr. Major) to Warri General Hospital, which is just a stone’s throw distance from Ogbe-Ijoh for immediate medical attention by police doctors under the watch of his men which the aforesaid DPO conceded to.
“After agreeing to the prayers of our clients to so do under the watch of his men, asked our clients to come the next morning, the 17th of July, 2023 only for our clients to get there he declined his promise.
“According to our clients, they saw the victim(Mr. Major) whom the DPO claimed to be the suspect wailing and dying due to the gunshot he received from his captors who are believed to be the agents of the DPO.
“Our client informed us further that, the DPO compelled them (our clients) to and extorted the cash sum of about (₦80,000) eighty thousand naira which he claimed to be used for first aid treatment for this dying man(Mr. Major) and transportation to transfer or convey the victim(Mr. Major) to the Police headquarters at Asaba.
“However, the DPO deliberately and intentionally refused the treatment of the victim until Thursday the 20th of July,2023 when our clients heard from a grapevine of the demise of our client’s innocent dear son, husband, father, uncle and brother(Mr. Major).
“Our clients briefed us in order to confirm the position of Mr. Major from the aforesaid DPO in charge of the Ogbe-Ijoh Police Station in Warri South-West Local Government Area, he was neither there nor here till date.”
In a swift reaction, the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP, Bright Edafe in a telephone chat with Our Correspondent said, “He is a lawyer. If he has petitioned the IGP and the matter has been charged to the Court. If he is going to the media too, what does he want me to say?”
