27th May 2024
The family of Late Levi Opara, aged 46, from Ezedibia, Emekuku in Owerri North Council Area of Imo State, on Monday continued to cry out to the Federal Government and the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to prosecute the arrested police officers suspected to be involved in the alleged murder of their father (Levi).
They also called on the Imo State governor, Hope Uzodimma, to intervene and bring justice to the family.
According to one of the daughters of the deceased, Iheoma Opara, who spoke on behalf of her siblings, the delay to prosecute the suspected officers was to avert justice.
She said: “All we want now is the Federal government, Inspector Generator of Police and Governor of Imo state, Hope Uzodimma, to intervene in the matter and bring justice to us. We are afraid that those blocking the prosecution of the officers involved want to bury the matter.”
Narrating how the incident happened, the daughter claimed that their late father, was arrested “On Sunday, October 15, 2023, and when they got the information of the arrest, we quickly rushed to the police the next day with our family relatives, where we met our father hale and hearty. But all efforts to secure his release to enable us to resolve the family issue failed as we were asked to come back on Wednesday, October 18, 2023.
“When we came back on Wednesday, we were shocked when the IPO and team leader notified us that my father who was never sick or suffering from any form of illness the day he was arrested was dead. On further inquiries, both the IPO and team leader informed us that he was at the police clinic but later changed and said his body had already been deposited at the Federal Medical Centre.
“On arrival at the said Federal Medical Centre, we saw the lifeless body of our father, and on a closer observation, discovered that my father’s body had several bruises as well as knife cuts on his neck which were hurriedly stitched either before or after his death.
“I want to also say this an autopsy was conducted and the result showed that our father was tortured and starved to death”, adding, however, that the father had been buried.
At the time of filing this story, a text message was sent to the Imo State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Henry Okoye, but did not respond.
He also did not pick several phone calls made to his phone lines for his reaction.
