A year and two months ago, precisely on June 8, 2005, Nigerians woke up to the reality of an ugly spectacle. Some policemen in the Federal Capital Territory conspired to gruesomely murder six young Nigerians (five boys, all motor spare parts traders at the Apo Mechanic Village and a lady) without any reason whatsoever. Having worked so hard in the day to earn a decent living, the victims ostensibly had taken some time off that night clubbing. On their way back, they ran into a road block mounted by the police, who are supposed to be their friends, but who as always turned out to be their worst enemies. That was the beginning of the sad story that transfixed the nation and appalled all decent minds the world over. The six young people were summarily executed. That wont be the first time policemen would waste innocent lives for no just cause in this country. In fact, it was not the first time that they would be killing such number of innocent people in one fell swoop. But there was something about the killing of these young people that came to be known as “Apo Six” that rankled badly. The deliberateness of the action was confounding. The killings were slow, careful and methodical. It was about the worst episode of needless and criminal bloodletting in the country in recent times. So bestial was the act that a country with a soul long deadened by all manner of atrocities, was for once scandalized. Nigerians that are never shocked by any crime no matter how atrocious, hideous and awful were roused from their lethargic slumber this time around because of the bestiality of the police officers. So callous were the wild animals in police uniform that they reportedly drove a six-inch nail through the nose of the only female victim, Augustina Arebum before finally twisting her neck and strangulating her.
And after all these, they did what they know how best to do — labeling the dead armed robbers. It took the tenacity of the Igbo community in Abuja to arouse the conscience of fellow citizens to this heinous crime and the nation was wheedled into action. So evil was the crime that the Police High Command indicted its officers after probing the case and finding them culpable. The indictment was unprecedented. So remorseful were the police that they had to foot the burial expenses of the six victims. The Federal Government also set up a Judicial Commission of Inquiry headed by Justice Olasunbo Goodluck, which duly completed its work and could not help but agree with the police panel that the accused were guilty as charged. But being a commission of inquiry, it had no powers to sanction, but the report was so damning that the accused were charged to court.A year and two months after this welter of incontrovertible evidence had been gathered, the case is not only still in court, two of the accused, Deputy Commissioner of Police Ibrahim Danjuma and Police Constable Emmanuel Acheneje were granted bail on Wednesday, August 2 by Justice Isaq Bello of Abuja High Court. The two were admitted to bail on medical ground. While Danjuma is said to be suffering from diabetes, ulcer and heart problem, Acheneje is said to have contracted the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and in the Justice’s opinion, granting Bello bail would enable him seek adequate medical treatment while that of Acheneje was predicated on the excuse that he could afflict other inmates with other ailments, which come with HIV/AIDS. And you would have thought that if for any reason whatsoever, such a man standing trial for so dreadful a crime is to be granted bail, the conditions would be so stringent, particularly bearing in mind that Danjuma had made several attempts in the past to escape from detention and also the fact that one of the principal suspects, Othman Abdulsalam, the DPO of Garki Police Station at the time the crime was committed escaped from the police detention facility and is still on the run. No! The bail was only the axiomatic slap on the wrist. Apart from his N2 million bail condition, Danjuma is only expected to produce two sureties in like sum, one of them being a former Inspector General of Police and a director in the civil service in the case of Acheneje. What did Danjuma do to achieve this stunning feat? He pulled the collapsing stunt twice in court.The trial judge knew what the reaction of Nigerians to the ruling would be hence his acknowledgement of the fact that the provisions of Section 341 and 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) do not allow bail for any accused person who is being tried for capital offence punishable with death. Yet he took a judicial shelter under a Supreme Court canopy. Hear him: “The law is an agent of civilization. It is not primitive. It is on account of its civilized posture that the Supreme Court takes seriously issue of ill health as constituting a special and exceptional circumstance for the grant of bail to a person being tried for capital offence punishable with death.” And the subtle blackmail; “I will not allow sentiment to serve as a control tower in this judicial exercise or anyone at that.” I am most certain that when the Supreme Court was making the judicial pronouncement under which the court hid to grand Danjuma bail, the Justices couldn’t have imagined some people who call themselves human beings could commit the crime these accused police officers committed. If this were a country where the wheel of justice rolls without any encumbrance, Danjuma and his co-travellers on the devil’s boulevard would have had their comeuppance by now. The court said the only right that cannot be derogated is the right of an individual to life. Of course, that is given. But when that right is being sought by soulless men like Danjuma who would have no qualms whimsically denying others of the same right in a most callous manner and for no just cause, it raises a moral and ethical dilemma. Granted, the law is an agent of civilization and is not primitive. But does that apply too to those who rather behave like men in the state of nature. Even wild animals have some qualms when dealing with their own. Yet, here are people who call themselves human beings committing crimes against humanity that would even make wild beasts shudder.Not a few Nigerians believe that in spite of the hue and cry, which attended the crime when it was committed, nothing would come out of it. To such people, Danjuma’s bail is the beginning of the long road to freedom. Yet, here is a country where people who committed less grievous offences that don’t attract capital punishment are routinely refused bail. Former governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who has been standing trial over money laundering offences and who is suffering from almost the same ailments, which Danjuma claims to be suffering from, was refused bail recently even on health ground. The former member of the House of Representatives, Maurice Ibekwe who was tried on the charge of advance fee fraud was severally brought to court on a wheelchair and his grave medical condition was too obvious for even the blind to see, yet, he was denied bail until he died in detention. And his offence and that of Alamieyeseigha are bailable. So what is special about Danjuma, a man who superintended the murdering in cold blood of innocent citizens being diabetic? If he escapes like his partner in crime, Othman did, what happens? Does this mean that the weak and underprivileged can never get justice in this country? If the six young men sent to their early graves were to be sons and daughters of the powers that be in this country, would Danjuma have dared ask for bail? Wouldn’t this case have been decided by now?I insist that no society, which building blocks were laid on a foundation of injustice and inequity can ever achieve greatness. It will ever remain primitive. And any people that have no value for human life, that would always whimsically destroy the ultimate gift of God will unfailingly attract the wrath of the Supreme Being.
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Will Nigeria’s ‘Apo Six’ ever get justice?
In the fourth of a series of articles looking at policing in Nigeria, the BBC’s Andrew Walker asks what happened to the “Apo Six”, the most infamous case of extra-judicial killing in Nigeria’s history: The pictures are truly gruesome – we cannot publish them. Lawyer Amobi Nzelu spreads the glossy prints out on his desk, covering it with horror. There is nowhere else to look except at the bodies. There is a close-up of a face, gaping exit-wound at the temple. Limbs and torsos covered in blood. Dead eyes stare upward. “This is a human being,” he says. “Look what they did.” Apology The bodies belong to six young Nigerians killed by the police. Ekene Isaac Mgbe, Ifeanyin Ozor, Chinedu Meniru, Paulinus Ogbonna and Anthony and Augustina Arebu were killed on 7 and 8 June, 2005. My friend was going to the bush, to go to the toilet, when he saw the police digging a hole and preparing to bury some people Elvis OzorYounger brother of Ifeanyin
The police tried to say they were armed robbers who had opened fire first. But a judicial panel of inquiry set up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo rejected the police’s story and the government apologised on behalf of the police for their killings. The government paid $20,300 (£13,800) compensation to each of the families. It recommended the officers be arrested and face a criminal trial. But nearly four years since the night the Apo Six were killed, the trial has got nowhere. The public has almost forgotten the case is still going on. Danjuma Ibrahim, the senior police officer accused of ordering the killings, lives free on medical bail. And the families of the dead have all but given up on justice. Tight-knit Elvis Ozor is the younger brother of Ifeanyin Ozor. Like his brother, he works as a spare car parts merchant in the Apo mechanics’ village, south of the capital, Abuja. It is a kind of shanty-town of sea crates and workshops where five of the Apo Six worked. APO SIX TIMELINE 7 June 2005: 2200 Apo Six meet Danjuma Ibrahim at a party8 June: 0200 Four shot at police roadblock0400 Ifeanyin and Augustina seen alive at Garki police station1100 Police try to bury six in a cemetery near ApoTwo days of rioting in Apo and Garki districts13 June: Police begin internal investigation24 June: President Obasanjo orders inquiry5 July: Police witnesses testify the six were slain in cold blood6 July: Police armourer admits weapons planted on bodies13 July: Court rules the suspects will face trial15 December: Bodies buried by families18 January 2006: Trial of police officers begins3 August: Danjuma Ibrahim released on “exceptional and special” medical bail
This is a tight-knit community, mostly of ethnic Igbos from Nigeria’s south-east. On 8 June 2005 the Apo mechanics found the police burying their friends in a cemetery that, by chance, was near their workshops. “My friend was going to the bush, to go to the toilet, when he saw the police digging a hole and preparing to bury some people,” Elvis says. “They recognised my brother. When the police said they were armed robbers, no-one believed them – they knew my brother was not like that.” “When I arrived at work, word had spread, but I didn’t know. I arrived and everyone was looking at me,” he says. The story was out, and an angry mob gathered. There was a riot in Apo and the police shot two more people dead. Unlike any other case of suspected extra-judicial killing in Nigeria, some of the police broke ranks and turned on the senior officer involved. The other five officers accused of the murders and eight more police witnesses have testified that Danjuma Ibrahim ordered the killings. During the judicial panel hearings, some Igbo police officers fed information to Mr Nzelu, who represented the families of the Apo Six. The panel heard that the six were at a nightclub in Abuja’s Area 11 when Mr Ibrahim – then off duty – propositioned Augustina. She turned him down, according to the testimony of Ifeanyin Ozor’s friends. Ransom demand Mr Ibrahim went to a police checkpoint at the end of the street and told officers there were a group of armed robbers in the area. When the six young people came in their car, he drove into them, blocking their way and ordered the police officers to shoot. Danjuma Ibrahim was a high ranking police officer in the Nigerian Police
Ifeanyin called his friends after he survived the first burst of gunfire, they testified. Who actually fired the shots is still disputed by Danjuma Ibrahim’s lawyers, but four of the six were killed there, the prosecution says. Ifeanyin and Augustina were taken to a police station. Officers called Augustina’s family to demand a 5,000 naira (then $43, £22) ransom to let her go, according to a report by the UN special rapporteur on extra-judicial execution. Her family could not raise the money. They were taken to a piece of rough ground outside town where they were executed, police officers testified at the criminal trial. Augustina was strangled. Then the police planted guns on the bodies of all six of the bodies and pictures were taken of them in the grounds of a police station by a police photographer. Danjuma’s defence At the criminal trial, Mr Ibrahim’s lawyers maintained that the Apo Six fired first. He says all of them were killed in the gun battle, and a “home made” pistol and a shotgun were found in the car. Extra-judicial killing in the police remains a shockingly common occurrence Eric GuttschussHuman Rights Watch
His lawyer Hyeladzira Nganjiwa says the prosecution dropped charges against some police officers in return for them changing their testimony. Mr Ibrahim is the fall guy in a government plot to sweep the incident under the carpet, he said. “I could never have done what they are accusing me of,” Mr Ibrahim told the BBC outside the Abuja court where he is being tried. He was released on medical bail in 2006, after his lawyer said he had a heart condition. The five other accused – one of whom is now dying of Aids, according to his lawyer – remain in police custody. That trial has been going on for almost three years. After hearing the testimony of eight prosecution witnesses, the defence is now cross-examining the first. Lawyers say the case is being stalled so it will eventually be forgotten, and the charges dismissed. ‘Stalling’ In this case people accepted the victims were not armed robbers because they came from a close community. But in other less high-profile cases, the public turns a blind eye to police killing, human rights advocates say. The reluctance to punish police officers “emboldens” other officers to kill, says Eric Guttschuss of Human Rights Watch. But the police say a great deal has changed since Apo Six case. “The police have a higher respect for human rights than before,” says spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu. “I am not aware of any recent cases of extra-judicial killing.” Divine justice? Mr Guttschuss of Human Rights Watch, which tracks alleged cases, disagrees. “Extra-judicial killing in the police remains a shockingly common occurrence.” He says the police lack the capacity to properly investigate crimes, and because of the pressure from society to deal with violent criminals, they simply dispose of suspects without the encumbrance of trials. “[A] Nigerian’s guilt or innocence is immaterial,” he says. Elvis Ozor says he has given up on the judicial system.