Bayelsa killing: Police prepare charges against suspects

There was an indication on Friday that the police in Bayelsa State had concluded plans to press charges against the policemen, who shot and killed 20-year-old Emmanuel Victor at a checkpoint on Sani Abacha Expressway in Yenagoa.Our correspondent gathered that the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Hilary Opara, had received a directive from the Inspector-General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, not to spare the three policemen suspected to have killed Victor in the presence of his mother. Though the police had refused to make names of the suspects public, SATURDAY PUNCH gathered from sources in the state police command, Yenagoa, that the policemen, who allegedly murdered Victor on his way back from the Christ Embassy Church, would soon face prosecution.The development, it was learnt, came shortly after the policemen were arrested and subjected to an orderly room trial by the police.They were said to have been indicted by the report of the committee that tried them and that the police had concluded an arrangement to charge them with murder.When contacted on the development, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mr. Eguaveon Emokpai, told SATURDAY PUNCH that the officers would be taken to court.He said the in-house trial conducted by the police did not exonerate them, adding that the police would follow laid down procedures in handling the matter.He said the trial would be made public and that journalists would be allowed to cover it.He, however, failed to state the date the prosecution of the three policemen will commence.Emokpai refused to give reasons for the police refusal to release the names of the policemen.But he said the suspects would remain in police custody until the commencement of their prosecution.He said, We have finished our in-house trial and we are ready to prosecute the officers. The trial we conducted did not exonerate them and that is why we are going to take them to court.
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