Osinachi: One Month After Gospel Singer’s Death, Police Stall While Prime Suspect Languish In Detention

It’s been one month since gospel singer Osinachi Nwachukwu died allegedly due to domestic abuse by her husband, Peter Nwachukwu, who was arrested on April 10.

Osinachi’s sudden death generated public uproar, with some saying she suffered from throat cancer while close family and church members alleged she was a victim of husband brutality. This prompted demand for a post mortem which was conducted on April 15.

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The result of the examination emerged 12 days after and was delivered to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Department for legal advice.

However, since then, the DPP is yet to make any public statement, a situation that many now see as justice delayed for Osinachi’s family and her widower—who was the prime suspect.

Nwachukwu was taken into custody after a family member of the deceased filed a petition at the FCT Police Command alleging culpable homicide.

The suspect was arrested and later transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for proper investigation.

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The Inspector General of Police, Alkali Usman Baba, while parading Nwachukwu in his office recently, had said the result of the post mortem would determine the direction of prosecution.

But the question remains, why have the police refused to make the post mortem public? Why are they still keeping the suspect in detention without charging him to court?

What The Law Says

The Nigeria Constitution in Section 35 (1) states: “Every person shall be entitled to his/her personal liberty and no person shall be deprived of such liberty save in the following cases and in accordance with a procedure permitted by law” – as stated in Section 35(c), “ For the purpose of bringing him before a court in execution of the order of a court or upon reasonable suspicion of his having committed a criminal offence, or to such extent as may be reasonably necessary to prevent his committing a criminal offence.

Speaking to THE WHISTLER, a Lawyer, Nelson Ilebor Kebordih, said “indeed session 35 of the constitution provides that everybody has the right to personal liberty but that right to liberty can be curtailed under the provision of paragraph (c) of subsection (1)”, as stated above.

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He noted that notwithstanding the provision of section 35 (4) that a person if arrested should be brought before the court within a reasonable time. The case of Osinachi’s death, where the husband is being investigated over a capital offence of culpable homicide, Section 35 (7) provides that the suspect be detained upon such reasonable suspicion.

Why Police Are Delaying Prosecution

Speaking further, Kebordih provided reasons why the police would not be in a hurry to make their findings public or to rush the suspect to court.

He said, “What Osinachi’s husband is facing is murder or manslaughter because the conversation is that she died due to a domestic act of violence so you see that there is a reasonable ground to suspect that the man is the cause of the woman’s death. So that automatically leaves a presumption that the man killed the wife, whether intentionally or otherwise.

“So, this is not something that can be rushed, so assuming the autopsy finds something across the woman and there is no evidence to show whether circumstantially or evidently that this is the result of this man’s act, the answer will still be that this man should go home.

“If the woman had died from a heavy blow, that is not enough, you still need to further show that even if she had died from a blow on the face, one needs to show a thorough high-level of evidence that has a form of mathematical accuracy without leaving any gap for speculation or doubt that the accused is guilty of the crime for which he is being investigated.

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“So forget about the public outcry, if the DPP concludes that the autopsy report revealed that the woman had died from a blow that can be traceable to domestic violence act, there is still corroborating evidence which the DPP must get handy before it can proceed to file a charge.

“And that is the challenge, which is why the investigation process cannot be out for public consumption. So, gathering evidence, speaking to people with a verifiable substantial claim is relevant, and for a high-profile case like this the DPP and other collaborating security agencies need to find a very convincing ground to proceed because any little doubt on the case and it will go in favour of the accused.

“The DPP will also prove that yes, someone had died, and she died out of the act of the person serving trial, and this is the act that led to the death of the deceased intentionally by certain activities that he knew that death was the possible consequence.”

FCT Police Command Says No Longer Involved

Meanwhile, the FCT police command has asked that Nigerians be patient because the investigation is ongoing, even as it said it is not responsible for delaying the process.

The command while fielding questions from journalists on Thursday said the police are not the only investigation and prosecution agency involved in the case.

The office of the Police Public Relations said, “A suspect could be held in police custody pending the conclusion of a DPP investigation; A person could be temporarily held in custody even for a case the police didn’t investigate nor prosecute, terms and conditions applied. So, the fact that he is in police custody doesn’t mean the case is still with the police”.

The command further noted that it was important to give the prosecutors opportunities to do their job, adding, “There will be no success story to write on if we do not hesitate to restrain in how we released facts of a case under investigation”.

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