Sources familiar with the investigation told SaharaReporters that police authorities have arrested two suspects, including the alleged sender of the Beretta pistol and four rounds of ammunition reportedly transported from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, to Effurun, through a commercial transport service.
Fresh details have emerged in the controversial killing of 28-year-old Oghenemine Ogidi, popularly known as “Mene Ogidi,” shot dead by a police officer in Effurun, Delta State, after operatives intercepted a pistol and ammunition linked to him.
Sources familiar with the investigation told SaharaReporters that police authorities have arrested two suspects, including the alleged sender of the Beretta pistol and four rounds of ammunition reportedly transported from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, to Effurun, through a commercial transport service.
The suspects were said to have been moved to the Effurun Area Command of the Delta State Police Command on Wednesday night as investigations intensify into the movement of the firearm and the circumstances surrounding Ogidi’s death.
A source close to the investigation disclosed that one of the suspects is believed to be the individual who arranged and sent the weapon from Bayelsa.
“It’s confirmed. Two suspects were brought in Wednesday night. They were arrested by mechanical intelligence
“One of them is the person who sent the gun through a transport line from Yenagoa to Effurun while the identity of the second person has not been revealed,” the source said.
Ogidi reportedly picked up the parcel to deliver it to the owner in Sapele before he was apprehended and allegedly extrajudicially shot by ASP Nuhu Usman in the presence of other officers.
The source added that investigators are still trying to determine the identity and level of involvement of the second suspect.
“I am suspecting that the second suspect is the driver who transported the parcel from Yenagoa," the source added.
The family of Ogidi has demanded justice, as the deceased’s mother revealed that the police had previously killed his younger brother.
Ogidi’s grieving mother and elder sister, who recently spoke in an emotional interview with BBC News Pidgin, recounted how the young man left home to pick up a waybill for a friend but never returned alive.
The Nigeria Police Force had on Wednesday, April 29, announced the dismissal of the trigger-happy officer, ASP Usman, and other officers involved in the killing after an internal investigation.
According to the Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Anthony Okon Placid, the dismissed officers would be handed over to the appropriate judicial authorities for prosecution over their roles in the fatal shooting.
But for Ogidi’s family, the police action has done little to ease the pain of what they described as a pattern of alleged targeted killing of their sons by the police
Ogidi’s mother broke down in tears during the BBC interview, revealing that another of her sons had also been killed previously by police officers.
“The one they killed before is younger to this one (Ogidi). What did I do to the police? From the video shown to me, I heard my son begging them it was someone who sent him to help him pick the waybill,” she said in Pidgin amid uncontrollable tears.
“It is when they (her children) are all grown that they (the police) are killing them.”
Ogidi’s elder sister described him as the pillar of the family and said his death had shattered them.
“He is my immediate younger brother. He was my everything. There is nothing I have done or where I have gone in my life without him. I call him for everything. Even for my son to buy shoes, he would first call brother Mene,” she said.
Narrating the events leading to his death, she said Ogidi informed the family that he was travelling to collect a waybill on behalf of a friend in Sapele.
“The day he was killed, when he was leaving the house, he told me he wanted to collect a waybill. That his friend in Sapele asked him to help him pick a waybill,” the sister said.
“He said his own phone was faulty, so he asked my mother to help him with her own phone to use. He collected my mother’s phone, and called the person (the owner of the waybill), and the person sent him money for transport to go and collect the waybill.
“He asked me for a shorter direction to get to where he was going to collect the waybill faster. I gave him directions on where he would board a bus directly to Sapele park, and he left.”
She said when Ogidi failed to return home that evening, the family became worried and began searching for him.
“But in the evening, he didn’t return. Then his friend came to me and said that OG had been arrested. Because everybody in our area knows him as OG. We started calling him (Ogidi), but he didn’t answer. Then we waited,” she said.
“On Monday morning, my elder brother said that since he had just been arrested, we should go to the police station and look for him.
“He went to all the police stations, including Ekpan, Mopol Base, Eburumede, A Division, and B Division. He went to each of them, but they said they didn’t hear about my brother’s arrest or see him.”
According to her, the search continued the following day, with even a mobile police officer joining the effort, but no station admitted knowledge of Ogidi’s whereabouts.
She said, “We said the only option left was to post his picture online. We posted his picture as a missing person. My husband, who travelled, also collected his picture and posted it.
“Later, my husband said that one of his friends asked for a clearer picture.
“When my husband sent him a clearer picture of OG, that was when they sent the videos of when he was arrested to my husband.
“Then, we were first told that the police first shot him in the hand, and that was not enough for them, so they killed him.”
The killing has since sparked outrage and protest, and renewed criticism of Nigeria’s long history of police brutality, unlawful detentions, torture and extrajudicial executions, despite repeated promises of reform following the 2020 #EndSARS protests.
Human rights advocates have called for the transparent prosecution of all officers involved and compensation for the bereaved family.
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