Suspect disarmed arrested and undergoing orderly room trial, Police say
Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Police authorities in Rivers have arrested a trigger-happy Police Sergeant, Bitrus Osaiah, who shot dead his female colleague, also a Sergeant, Lovender Elekwachi, at her duty post at Eneka roundabout of Obio-Akpor Local Government area, a suburb Port Harcourt, the Rivers Capital on Thursday.
The incident resulted in pandemonium among the residents and traders in the community.
Eyewitnesses said that the trigger-happy Police Sergeant was assisting the Officials of the TaskForce on illegal Motorparks and Street Trading, to disperse traders who had defied the state government’s order on closure of local markets as part the enforcement of lockdown order of the state government imposed to contain the spread of Coronavirus in the state.
It was not yet clear how the bullet from the gun of the police officer hit his colleague who was busy directing traffic at the junction.
But speaking on the incident, the Rivers State Police Command Public Police Relations Officer, PPRO, DSP Nnamdi Omoni, in a statement said until her untimely death, the deceased police Sergeant was serving at Eneka Division and was posted to the Eneka roundabout on traffic duties.
According to Omoni,”the late Woman Sergeant was shot while controlling traffic by Sergeant Bitrus Osaiah attached to the Operations Department of the Command.
“Meanwhile, the Sergeant who is said to be attached to the Rivers State Task Force on road Decongestion, has been arrested, disarmed and undergoing Orderly Room Trial.
“Two other members of the Task Force have also been arrested and are being questioned. The Hilux vehicle belonging to the TaskForce has been impounded and the corpse of the Woman Sergeant deposited in the mortuary.
“The Commissioner of Police, CP Joseph G. Mukan, who assumed duty on Wednesday has ordered investigation into the matter with a view to unraveling the circumstances that led to her death and has appealed for calm, pending the outcome of the investigation, promising that the interest of justice must be served in the circumstance.”