Enugu Senator Wants Senate To Investigate ‘Rape, Murder Of Miss Abugu In Police Custody’
The senator representing Enugu North senatorial district of Enugu State, Chief Chuka Utazi, Tuesday, called on the Senate committees on Police Affairs and Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters to investigate the circumstances that led to the alleged arrest, detention and extra-judicial killing of Miss Ifeoma Abugu by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, FCT Police Command.
THE WHISTLER earlier reported the alleged murder of the 28-year-old in his fiancé’s house in Abuja. The police operatives were reported to have, on 10th September, 2020, gone to arrest his boyfriend, one Afam Agwunwa, at Wumba village, Lokogoma, and when they could not find him, arrested Miss Abugu who was in his house. She was then ‘allegedly detained, raped, tortured and extra-judicially killed while in the custody of SARS, FCT Police Command, with alleged sexual and body abuses’, Utazi alleged.
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Utazi, in a motion of urgent national importance at the hallowed chambers, said the arrest of the late Miss Abugu, ab initio, was contrary to Section 7 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, and regretted that since the alleged extra-judicial killing of Miss Abugu by SARS operatives in the second week of September, 2020, the FCT Police Command had ‘to the disappointment of relatives and concerned family members of the deceased engaged in a blame game in a desperate bid to either exonerate the SARS operatives who were involved in the illegal arrest, torture and killing of the deceased or callously blame the incident on alleged drug overdose or other causes attributed to the deceased’.
According to him, “Until her untimely and gruesome murder by operatives of SARS, the deceased, Miss Abugu, had through dint of hard work and sheer determination, received her tertiary education at the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu, and had reportedly concluded her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), as well as her marriage introduction with her fiancé, Mr Afam Ugwunwa, at her country home, Ugbaike, Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of Enugu State.
“The gruesome murder of Miss Abugu has once again brought to national limelight, reported cases of misconduct ranging from harassment, extortion, assault, rape and extra-judicial killings attributed to men and officers of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in the recent past. Before this unfortunate gruesome murder of Miss Abugu, there had been persistent complaints by the general public, including reports in print and electronic media, on the atrocities of operatives of the Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS) that border on highhandedness and allegations of human rights violations, including illegal arrests, detention and extra-judicial killing of Nigerians under very questionable and controversial circumstances.”
Utazi, in his motion, appealed to the Senate to urgently investigate the incident to ensure that justice was given to the family of the deceased, and to also establish the status of SARS’ reforms in the light of recent public outcry over atrocities perpetrated by SARS operatives.
