APO SIX: Killer-Policemen To Know Fate On March 9

A Federal Capital Territory High Court on Monday adjourned till March 9 for judgement in a lingering case of alleged extra-judicial killings of six Igbo traders by the police in Abuja in 2005.

Five police officers are facing trial for the killings, popularly referred to as “Apo Six”..

Danjuma Ibrahim, Othman Abdulsalami, now at large, Nicholas Zakaria, Ezekiel Acheneje, Baba Emmanuel, and Sadiq Salami allegedly murdered the six traders in Apo, Abuja.

Their six victims wereIfeanyi Ozo, Chinedu Meniru, Isaac Ekene, Paulinus Ogbonna, Anthony Nwokikeand Augustina Arebun – aged between 21 and 25 years, were returning from a night party in 2005 when they were brutally killed by policemen who should have protected them.

The defendants had pleaded not guilty to the allegations. The police had justified the killings, claiming the five men and one woman were armed robbers who first opened fire.

Due to the tremendous public outcry that followed the horrific killings, an official panel of inquiry was set up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Ultimately, five officers accused of the killings and eight other police witnesses testified that the senior officer involved, Ibrahim, allegedly ordered the killings.

According to the report of the panel, the victims were at a nightclub located at Gimbiya Street, Area 11 in Abuja on the night of the incident. It was also discovered that the face-off between Ibrahim and the group allegedly started when the female victim (Augustina) turned down the senior police officer’s love overtures at the club.

The testimonies of the witnesses show that Ibrahim’s pride and ego was bruised by late Augustina’s refusal to accept his love proposal. So he decided to deal with her.

The report indicated that Ibrahim had gone to a police checkpoint at the end of the street and told officers on duty that they were a group of armed robbers in the area.

According to the report which is part of evidence tendered in court, when the six young people came in their car, Ibrahim allegedly drove into them, blocking their way and ordered the police officers to shoot.

Four of the six died on the spot while Ifeanyi and Augustina had survived the initial onslaught. But were taken outside Abuja metropolis where they were executed. Before then however Ifeanyi had called their friends on telephone to tell them what had happened.

It was the last they heard from him.