he police in Bayelsa State were, on Wednesday, embroiled in a case of alleged extra-judicial killing of a 17-year-old Ijaw youth, Master Innocent Kokorifa.
Innocent, who hailed from Okpotuari community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, was reportedly shot dead on August 18 by the Anti-Vice/Anti-Kidnapping squad of the police at Air Force Road, Yenagoa.
The incident, which happened at about 11am on the fateful day, has pitted the police against, the deceased family, Ijaw youth groups and activists who accused the law enforcement agency of extra-judicial killing.
The father of the deceased, Mr. Daniel Kokorifa, an officer of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), who broke down in tears while narrating the incident, said Innocent, his first child out of five children, was murdered in cold blood.
He said the victim who was to turn 18 on September 9 was a peacemaker, a non-smoker who had no records of criminality.
Narrating the incident, he said: “On August 18, I received a call from my wife that the police shot my first son, Innocent Kokorifa. I instructed my wife to go to police station at Ekeki to inquire about the condition and whereabouts of Innocent.
“My wife later called to inform me that on getting to the station, she said ‘police shot my son’, but the police retorted ‘do not say police shot your son, so that police will investigate the matter for you’. They admonished and doctored her that if asked, she should say ‘bad boys shot her son’.”
“When I heard this, I left Port Harcourt, where I work, by night bus and arrived Bayelsa at about 11pm the same day. I made efforts to locate the whereabouts and condition of my son to no avail because most police station l reported to claimed ignorance of the case”.
Kokorifa said he went to the crime scene late in the night in company with some of his family members and on getting there he spotted blood stains on the ground.
He said: “The next day, we returned to the same spot and met a woman who told us what really happened at the spot. The woman told us that men of the Anti-Vice squad came out and shot at an unarmed boy.
“She insisted that the environment was peaceful and there was no cause for alarm until the police in Jeans and t-shirts came and shot the boy. When the boy fell down and became lifeless, the police prevented people from having a close look at the lifeless body.
“They shielded the body of the deceased from onlookers and threw it into their van and zoomed off. After hearing this, I went to the office of Anti-Vice squad at Road Safety road to see the O/C Anti-Vice, but was told the O/C was not on seat and was advised to wait for the O/C”.
After waiting in vain for the Officer Commanding Anti-Vice, Kokorifa said he went to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) where he was told by a doctor that a police team brought a lifeless body of a youth to the emergency unit on the fateful day.
“I was told that the Emergency Unit rejected the body since it was already lifeless. I further went to the mortuary unit, where on enquiry, l was told by the mortuary attendant that a body was brought by members of the Anti-Vice squad.
“I was told by the mortuary attendant that the police deposited money for the mortuary bill and signed the mortuary register at exactly 11:59am, about an hour after they killed him. The lifeless body of the deceased was brought out by the mortuary attendant and I identified it as my son.
“I noticed that the deceased was hit by a bullet which perforated his oesophagus. On the day of the incident, my wife told me that Innocent left the house and went out to visit his aunt, Miss Gbasiemokumor Lucky who lives at the street adjacent to our house”, he said.
He further sobbed: “Innocent was a loving son, the kind of child every father would pray to have. He doesn’t smoke, neither does he keep friends or late night. He had no criminal record whatsoever and until his death, he was not of a questionable character.
“He recently sat for the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) and he was awaiting his result before they killed him. We need justice. Killers of my son must be fished out and brought to justice”.
But the police in a statement signed by the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Butswat Asinim, said on the fateful day the squad went to an uncompleted building along Airforce Road to arrest a three-man notorious armed robbery gang.
The statement said: “On sighting the police and in a frantic bid to escape, the robbers fired at the police, the Police returned fire, one of the suspects sustained a bullet injury, while the others escaped, abandoning one locally made single barrel pistol, one live cartridge, one expended cartridge and wraps of substances suspected to be Indian hemp.
“The wounded suspect was arrested and taken to the Federal Medical Centre, for treatment, but died few hours later. The deceased suspect was later identified as one Innocent Kokorifa ‘m’ Efforts have been intensified to arrest the fleeing suspects. Investigation is ongoing”.
But a human rights lawyer from the Faculty of Law, Uyo, Mr. Aluzu Augustine, who was following the matter said the police were economical with the truth.
“It should be noted that the police did not mention where or who was being robbed at the time, before the police intervened.
“The locus in quo (Okaka Estate) is purely a residential area. The O/C Anti-Vice did not state who made the distress call and what time the distress call was received by members of his team and they did not also say who the armed robbers were”.
Investigations revealed that the human rights community and Ijaw youths were not in tandem with the explanations given by the police insisting that the teenager was killed without provocation.
Irked by the development, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Central Zone, was said to be planning a protest to occupy Yenagoa and demand justice for Innocent.
The Treasurer of the zone, Mr. Ebikade Ekerefe, the former Spokesman of IYC, Owoupele Jeremiah and Deputy Speaker of the IYC Parliament, Tare Porri and other stakeholders were said to be mobilising youths against the police.