No fewer than 11 policemen attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Cross River State have been dismissed from service after an orderly room trial found them guilty of extra-judicial killing.
The 11 dismissed policemen and three other senior officers were indicted for the extra-judicial killing of a 300-level student of the Department of Accounting, University of Calabar, Derek Maurice-Enang, and five others.
It was learnt that the three senior officers would wait for their own disciplinary actions from the Police Headquarters in Abuja.
Derek and the five others were killed on April 17, 2014 in an alleged gun duel with the police in Akpabuyo Local Government Area of the state.
Their bodies were sold to the Anatomy Department of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital for N11, 000 each.
But a senior police source at the Zone Six Police Command, who broke the news of their dismissal, said there was no evidence linking those killed to allegations of robbery during the trial.
He said, “The judgement has been handed down on them. Throughout the trial, there was no evidence linking the slain people to robbery. It was clear that the policemen are not innocent of the accusations. They are all still in detention awaiting their arraignment in court.”
A committee set up by the immediate past Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of Zone Six, Calabar, Mr. Musa Daura, indicted the policemen over their involvement in the death of Derek and others.
It was gathered that Daura signed their dismissal from the Force before leaving the command for his new posting.
When contacted, the Zone Six Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ibrahim Tasiu, said he had yet to get the details of the dismissal because he had not been in the office in the last two weeks due to ill health.
The Police Public Relations Officer in Cross River State Command, Mr. Hogan Bassey, declined comment on the matter, saying the issue had gone beyond the command. Punch
