An awry incident happened in Aluu community in Ikwerre Local Government Area Rivers State on 5th Oct 2012. An incident that drew the attention of the entire world.
It was the gruesome murder of four students of University of Port Harcourt who were accused of robbery without any verifiable evidence.
Ugonna Obuzor, Toku Lloyd, Tekena Elkannah and Chiadika Biringa went through untold inhuman treatment in the hands of their killers before life was finally sniffed out of them
The mob who killed the students dragged them round the town of Aluu, subjecting them real torture before setting them ablaze. The security men who were present could not save them from the hand of the mob. It goes to show how ineffective our security system in Nigeria is, but that’s a subject matter for another day.
After the killing, twelve persons including the Traditional ruler of Umuokiri, Alhaji Hassan Welewa and a police officer were charged to court, but five of the suspects which includes the traditional ruler of Umuokiri, were discharged and acquitted on 27 January, 2017.
After five years of legal battle at the federal high court in Port Hacourt, judgement was finally delivered on the matter on July 31. Out of the seven suspect remaining, four were discharged and acquitted why three, a police sergeant Mr. Lucky Orji, David Chinasa Ogbada and Ikechukwu Louis Amadi, (aka Kapoon) were sentenced to death.
The trial judge, Justice Letam Nyordee, while delivering judgment noted that the prosecution counsel was able to prove the involvement of the three persons through a video evidence presented to the court.
The judgement of the Port-Hacourt High Court is indeed reassuring as it will serve as deterrent to people who feels it is possible to take laws into their hands and go free. No man for any reason has the right to take life without allowing the due course of the law take its place first.
Although the judgement of the court cannot bring back the lives lost but it will assuage the pains and quest for justices by family members of the deceased who had invested so much in them as observed by the judge that “the victims had great hope and future for their families.”
The July 31 judgement has been awaited with so much curiously by both Nigerians and international human right organization, although the judgement was delayed , the good thing is that it was not denied.
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