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THE circumstances surrounding the murder, penultimate Saturday, of a mother of four children and Managing Director of Eve Rental Services, Ovwian-Aladja, Delta State, 42-year-old Mrs. Grace Dagbo, after Police officers impounded and drove away with her Sienna car, abandoned mother and daughter on a notoriously dangerous road, have sparked controversy in the state.
        The 11-year-old child, Miss Oghenenyerehovwo Dagbo, who witnessed the incident, narrated how gunmen operating with tricycle, took advantage of their precarious situation, moments after the policemen sped off, picked them as passengers, dispossessed her mother of her purse and phone before shooting her dead. An N.G.O,  Centre for the Vulnerable and Underprivileged, CENTREP, and concerned groups are asking, among other things, if it was a pre-arranged plot between the Police officers and bandits, especially as the security agents purportedly took off after discovering N200,000 in her possession.
Miss Dagbo, who was in company of her father at CENTREP office, said: “My mother and I were going home in her car through the DSC flyover, when a Police patrol team flagged us down and demanded for the vehicle particulars and tinted glass permit. My mother promptly gave the vehicle particulars to the policemen, but could not immediately give them a copy of her tinted glass permit that was at home. “In the process, they ordered us out of the vehicle at gunpoint, searched and found my mother’s handbag containing N200,000. At that point, she they impounded our vehicle, immediately drove it away, while the team leader entered their patrol van and left us stranded in the lonely route not minding the danger they have exposed us.” She narrated that just after the Police officers entered their patrol van and left the scene, a commercial tricycle driver drove from nowhere pretending to assist them. Executive Director, CENTREP, Mr. Oghenejabor Ikimi, took over at this point: “She told us that immediately they entered into the said tricycle that had two other men at the back, her mother decided to sit with the rider at the front seat while she sat with the two men at the back. After driving for some few metres, they dispossessed her of her hand bag and phones and, in the confusion that ensued, they shot her on the rib and forcefully pushed her out of the said tricycle alongside herself(daughter). “She said while the deceased was bleeding on the bare ground, she daughter was wailing for help, which no doubt attracted sympathisers in the area, who rushed her to the nearby Lonia Clinic in Ovwian at about 8p.m. with her intestines spilling out, doctors on duty certified the her dead.  At Lonia Clinic, Ovwian, the daughter pulled a call through a Good Samaritan to her father, Mr. Benjamin Dagbo, who raced down to the clinic and took the lifeless body of his late wife to the Nigeria Police Station, Ovwian, where he saw his wife’s Toyota Sienna car parked in the said Police Station. “The Divisional Police Officer ordered some of his men to deposit the corpse at the Central Hospital, Warri. “At the Central Hospital, Warri, the husband of the deceased contacted his lawyers at about 10p.m., and in turn was advised to call the Delta State Commissioner of Police on phone to narrate his ordeal to the Police boss one-on-one. The Commissioner of Police called for a tripartite meeting between the family of the deceased, the erring policemen and the Police authority in the state, at the Area Command Office, Warri at 10a.m. on Monday, July 22. “During the said meeting, which was presided over by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, State C.I.D., Hussein, statement was taken from the lone witness, Miss Oghenenyerhovwo Evon Ngozi Dagbo, aged 11 years and the arrest of the erring policemen were ordered preparatory to a possible arraignment before an orderly room trial. “In the process of arresting the said erring policemen, one of them evaded arrest, but was later apprehended in Sapele where he had gone to hide, before taking him with the others to the State C.I.D, Asaba, for further interrogation.