Policemen shot my brother twice in chest. Witness tells panel

Ini Friday

A witness, Miss Lucy Thompson has said that policemen, attached to the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) shot her bother, Thompson Thompson to death while returning from work on August 2010.

Lucy, who made the revelation to the Judicial Panel of Investigation on Incidences of Police Brutality in Akwa Ibom State at High Court Complex on Monday in Uyo, said her brother was shot twice in the chest.

The witness, a fashion designer, from Idua community in Eket Local Government Area of the state, narrated that her late brother was returning home when he was suddenly accosted by members of the disbanded squad.

Continuing her ordeal, Lucy said she was at their parlour watching movie when she suddenly heard some noise as if people were fighting.

According to her, since the house was by the main road and not fenced, she moved out to see what was happening and she saw policemen beating her brother because they wanted to collect his bag which he refused to let go.

She said when the deceased, who was an ‘iron bender’ finally decided to let go of the bag to the policemen, he was fired twice in the chest.

Lucy said the policemen, after the gunshots had attracted people in the neighbourhood to the scene, they immediately put him in the trunk of their vehicles and zoomed off to their station.

She said the corps of her late brother which was deposited in one of the mortuaries in Eket was later buried in 2014 after several letters sent to Commissioner of Police in the State and Inspector General of Police yielded no fruit.

”I was in the house watching movie when this happened, and our house is closed to the main road”

“I heard some noises and I rushed out to check what was going on.

“It was there I saw policemen beating up my brother and one of them was shouting that if did not give the bag he was going to shoot him (Thompson). He always put some of his tools in his hanging bag.

“But while he was trying to remove the bag to them after being maimed and before I could realize, one of them (policemen) shot him twice in the chest and I was there present.

“A lot of people who came out, saw what happened. In fact, when they noticed that more people were coming out to the scene, they immediately took my brother’s corps into the trunk of their car and drove to the Police Divisional Headquarters there in Eket Local Government.

“My father went to the station and reported the incident which I also followed. When I got there I saw my brother’s corps at the veranda of the station and they did not allow me to get close to him.

“My father be through his Barrister, later wrote a letter to the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner of Police and the Inspector General of Police but till date nothing has been done.

However, the seven-man-panel presided over by Hon. Justice Ifiok Ukana adjourned the case to January 21, 2021 for further hearing.