Police kill a plumber, dump his body in morgue for two years

                            Late Adegoke
Police kill a plumber, dump his body in morgue for two years

…I want justice – wife
By Evelyn Usman & Jefferson Okeke
Fate has played an unkind one in the Orosoye family, following the gruesome killing of their bread winner, Adegoke (42) by a bullet allegedly from some policemen, in the nation’s Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

How it happened
Late Adegoke, a plumbing engineer, reportedly left where he had gone to work for a family around Wuse area of Abuja on Thursday, August 27, 2015, heading for his Soka home along Airport road, when the unexpected happened. Crime Guard gathered that while driving home, policemen at Area 1 shopping complex, flagged his vehicle down but he refused to stop, an action that allegedly led to the policemen releasing bullets on the moving vehicle. One of the bullets was said to have hit Adegoke in the neck, thereby forcing the car to stop abruptly.

Meanwhile, apprehension had set in, back in Owode, Ijako area of Ogun state, where his wife Oluwatosin resides with their five children, after several calls to her husband’s telephones were not answered. She was said to have contacted her husband’s mechanic, one Rotimi in Abuja , who informed that he had also not seen Adegoke for two weeks then.

Wife opens up
Narrating how news of his demise was eventually broken, devastated Oluwatosin said : “The last time I spoke with my husband was on August 25th 2015, during which he told me he would be coming to see us at the end of the month.

I called again on 27th but the phone was busy. By the time I dialled his number on August 28, 2015, it was completely switched off. “Tension heightened after his mechanic said that my husband brought one of his cars two weeks before then, to his workshop for repairs but he had not seen him since then. I begged him to go to his house to check if he was sick. When he got there, he said that his doors were under lock and keys.

we resorted to prayers until two months later when the mechanic called to inform me that my husband was sick and was admitted at the hospital. He requested for telephone number of any of his male relatives and I gave him that of his elder brother. My fears were confirmed as I was asked to come to Abuja, only to be told that my husband was shot by some policemen. My world came crashing at that point.

We were taken to the FCT command, Gariki , where a policeman who claimed to be the Investigating Police Officer, IPO, told us to visit the mortuary to identify my husband. I went with our first son, Jesuloba, but I could not go inside the mortuary. Our son went inside and identified one of the bodies as my husband’s”, she stated in tears.

Corpse still in morgue
As you read this piece, Adegoke’s body is still in a morgue in Abuja. His widow stated that the Police simply told her to go and pick the body for burial.

In tears, she told  Crime Guard that she had no money to pay the mortuary bill, let alone to transport the corpse to Lagos for burial. She stated: “When we went back to the command to know what the next move was, the IPO simply told us to go and carry the body for burial. I was too shocked to react. They did not even show us the policeman that fired the shot that snuffed life out of my husband. All they said was that my husband refused to stop when he was ordered to. Is that enough to kill a man?” she asked.

Children out of school
Since the tragic incident occurred, life has never been the same for Adegoke’s widow who has been saddled with the responsibility of fending for their five children alone. The pang of the bread winner’s death seems to be having a harsh toll on the children as two of the them could not complete their third term in secondary education, following inability of their mother to pay the fees.
The children are;
Jesulobal Oluwaseyi
(17); Mojolaoluwa
(15 ) Moyosere
(13); Adeoluwa
( 9) and Temidayo
(6)Also, Oluwatosin and her children have vacated their one room and parlour self-contained apartment in Ogun state because of financial constraint. They are at the moment with her mother and siblings in a three bedroom apartment at Yasera Street off Ademola Abiola Street in Alakuko area of Lagos.

Wants IGP to intervene
The mother of five who sells sachet water lamented that the situation had introduced the children to an unpalatable chapter. She therefore, called on the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, and well as meaning Nigerians to come to her aid by ensuring that her husband’s killers were brought to book. She said: “All I demand is justice. I really don’t know where to begin from. My husband, friend and father of my children has been taken away.

Two of my children are out of school because I could not afford the school fees. Besides, I owe the school N45, 000 for the previous term. This was not the dream my husband had for his children,” she lamented.

Erring policeman, arrested, dismissed -FPRO
When contacted, the Force Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood , stated that he was serving at the FCT command when the incident occurred. He clarified that the incident occurred at Garki along Ahmadu Bello way, adding that the late Adekoke drove himself to the hospital where he later died.

He disclosed that the erring policeman was immediately arrested and had been been dismissed from the Force. He could however not comment on the corpse that was still in the morgue but referred Crime Guard to the Police Public Relations Officer, FCT command. He also stated that the killer cop was being prosecuted.