The family of 28-year-old, Mene Ogidi, who was killed by officers of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) in Effurun, Delta State, has demanded justice over his death.
Ogidi’s mother and elder sister, who spoke during an emotional interview with BBC News Pidgin, said the deceased 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 ASP Nuhu Usman, who shot Ogidi, and other officers involved in the incident after an internal investigation.
The Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Anthony Okon Placid, said the dismissed officers would be handed over to the appropriate judicial authorities for prosecution.
Ogidi’s mother, Oghenemine, said the police had previously killed another of her sons.
She broke down in tears as she questioned what her family had done to deserve such pain.
She said, “The one they killed before is younger to this one. 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 added, “It is when they are all grown that they are killing them.”
Sister Recounts Last Moments
Ogidi’s elder sister described him as the pillar of the family, saying his death had left them devastated.
She said, “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.”
Narrating what happened before his death, she said Ogidi told the family that he was going 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,” she said.
She explained that Ogidi’s phone was faulty, so he borrowed their mother’s phone to contact the person who sent him on the errand.
“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, and the person sent him money for transport to go and collect the waybill,” she added.
The sister said the family became worried when Ogidi did not return home that evening.
She said they later heard from one of his friends that he had been arrested.
“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, but he didn’t answer. Then we waited,” she said.
She added that the family visited several police stations in search of him but got no useful information.
She stated, “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, after several failed attempts to locate Ogidi, the family decided to post his picture online as a missing person.
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.”
She said the family was later informed that Ogidi had been shot by the police.
“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,” she said.
The family insisted that the dismissal of the officers was not enough, demanding full prosecution and justice for the deceased.