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Family narrates how policeman detained, killed man against court order, withdrew money from his account

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An Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), David Ahmed Agbo, attached to the Inspector General of Police Intelligent Response Team (IGP-IRT) “D” Division, Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State, has confessed that a man who was arrested and detained in 2019 had since died while in detention.

Agbo made the confession on Monday, December 14, in Abuja before the Independent Investigative Panel (IPP) set up by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to probe allegations of rights violations by men of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and other units of the police.

The victim, Edward Dumsara Leera, according to his brother, Confidence Leera, was arrested in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on November 1, 2019, by the IGP-IRT team, on allegations of cultism.

Agbo, while responding to a petition filed by Confidence who claimed that Edward was unjustly arrested and subjected to inhuman treatment by police officers in custody against court orders, explained that himself and other police officers took Edward’s remains to the University of Port-Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) mortuary when he died in custody.

The complainant’s lawyer, Victor Giwa, tendered documents, including a copy of the petition and court order directing the production of the victim in court, saying the police never obeyed the court order.

Giwa also claimed that Agbo seized Edward’s ATM card with which his agents allegedly withdrew various amounts of money from the deceased’s bank account between November 2019 and October 2020.

The lawyer also tendered documents showing a transfer of N20,000 to Agbo’s account, and others evidencing the various withdrawals from the bank account of the deceased.

Confidence, while testifying before the panel on November 16, 2020, had said the police arrested Edward and detained him for no just cause, while his car was confiscated and converted to personal use by Agbo.

Confidence informed the panel that the police had asked his family to pay N3 million before Edward could be released, even after knowing that the victim was dead.

Read also: ‘How policeman killed my husband during official assignment,’ Widow tells Lagos panel

According to him, he later instituted a suit for the enforcement of his fundamental rights, adding: “Subsequently, on December 17, 2019, the court ordered hearing of the application of Edward Dumisara Leera and delivered judgment in his favour and ordered immediate release of the said Edward.”

But the police neither produced Edward in court nor released him in accordance with the earlier court order.

Confidence added that instead of complying with the court’s judgment of December 2019, the police allegedly filed a seven-count charge against Edward.

The deceased’s wife, Peace, told reporters after the panel’s proceedings that she was barely one year in marriage and that her late husband never saw her pregnancy or their baby, only for her to be told that her husband had died.

She alleged that Agbo asked her to abort her pregnancy while she was pleading for the release of her husband.

Peace claimed that Agbo bragged that she would not see her husband again, having failed to pay N3 million he demanded for his release.

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