A’Ibom youths storm NNPC premises in Rivers over kinsman’s death

Members of the Akwa Ibom community in Rivers State on Friday blocked the premises of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited along Moscow Road, Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, protesting the unclear circumstances leading to the death of their 23-year-old kinsman, Asher Christopher, a cleaner with the company who reportedly died inside the facility on Tuesday.

The protesters, comprising youths and women, who defied a downpour, stormed the company entrance at about 10am with placards and palm frond leaves, demanding the corpse of the youth.

This was coming 24 hours after the father of the deceased, Mr Dan Christopher, while addressing newsmen, raised suspicion over his son’s death and cried for justice.

The protesters were in two groups, with some matching towards the headquarters of the Rivers State Police Command near the NNPC premises.

They displayed a large banner bearing the picture of the late youth with the inscription ‘Justice for Asher’, as well as various placards with different writings explaining their grievances.

Some of the inscriptions on their placards read, ‘Who killed Asher?’, ‘Where is Asher’s corpse? ‘NNPC, give us explanations,’ and ’We want justice’, among others.

The gate of the NNPC premises was hurriedly closed by security men attached to the company on sighting the crowd of youths.

Speaking with newsmen, King Albert, who said he was the event coordinator of the Akwa/Ibom community in Rivers State said the information they got was that Asher fell from a storey building in the facility, but that no one in the company said he saw how the incident happened.

Albert said the community in alliance with the deceased family were demanding for the body of their late kinsman in order for an autopsy to be conducted immediately to ascertain the cause of death and take it up from there.

He stated, “Our brother, Asher Dan Christopher, came to work on the 20th of this month only for us to get information that an incident occurred as at 10am. We got information by 4pm that the young man fell from this (pointing into a high rise building in the company) and died.

“But the same people are telling us that they were not present when the incident happened. We saw the clothes this young man wore on the 4th floor, while they were telling us that he fell from the 8th floor.

“Now, these people seize the corpse of the young man, refusing the family and the entire community of Akwa/Ibom people to see his corpse.

“So we are calling on the Commissioner of Police, the Rivers State Government and all respected individuals of this state to come into this matter because  it is a matter of Akwa/Ibom State and Rivers State.”

Continuing, he said, “And it’s very important because the Akwa Ibom State Government is aware of this and they will definitely come into this matter.

“We need justice, we need an autopsy, we need to see the corpse of this young man, because they are telling us they will not allow us access to the corpse of this young man for fourteen days so that we have access to do what they want to do.

“We need justice for Asher Christopher Dan.”

Our correspondent reported that for over two hours of protest, no official of the company came out to address the protesters who later moved to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department of the state police command.

Security men and some staff of the company were spotted behind the gate of the company looking at the protesters, with some discussing the issue.

But at the headquarters of the State Police Command, a top officer informed the protesters that the matter had been transferred to State CID for proper investigations and lauded the protesters for their peaceful disposition, even as they started matching to the special police unit to also register their protest there.

The spokesperson for the state police command, Grace Iringe-Koko, while confirming Asher’s death to our correspondent on Thursday said his corpse was deposited in a mortuary and that the police have commenced investigation.