3 months ago
13
Members of the Nwosu family have lamented the gruesome murder of their son, Alfred Chukwemeka Nwosu, in Lagos.The members also accused the police in Elemoro Divisional Headquarters, under the Lagos State Police Command, of alleged unprofessionalism.
The Guardian learnt that Nwosu’s voyage to death started in June 2024 when he saw a Sienna vehicle with registration number APP112EC4T32F13CXYUZ229861 displayed for sale on Jiji, an online trading platform. He applied for and bought the car for N2.7 million from a designated car stall along the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway.
However, the police arrested him two months later for owning a stolen car. Shocked by the allegation, the late Nwosu told the police that he legally bought the car at a dealer’s stand.
Upon presenting a receipt and other relevant documents for the transaction, he was released on bail and asked to report three days later to take the police to where he bought the car.
Before then, the 34-year-old architect reportedly called those who sold the car to him, and it was discovered that the wife of the vehicle owner was the one who took the vehicle to the car stand without her husband’s consent, prompting her husband to report a stolen vehicle case to the police.
On the appointed date, the police reportedly asked the deceased to report to the station at about 5.00 a.m. so that they could go to Egbeda, where he bought the vehicle.
The deceased reportedly told his elder sister, Mrs Mercy Nwosu, of the police invitation, and she advised that it was too early for him to be at the police station. The elder sister suggested that he wait until 5.30 a.m. before leaving his house so that he would be at the station at 6:00 a.m., which he obliged.
At the station, he reportedly called his uncle, saying that he was already there, and the uncle told him to go and submit himself to the Investigation Police Officer (IPO).
But the incident took another twist after his elder sister was called at about 10.00 a.m. and informed that Nwosu was dead. Narrating the circumstances that led to her brother’s death in tears, Mrs Mercy Nwosu said: “I couldn’t believe my ears. I asked how it had happened. The police said a hit-and-run driver knocked him down. I raced down there, and behold, my brother was stone dead, with his neck almost separated from his body.
“I discovered that his throat was slit. There was a machete cut on his hand. If he was knocked down, as the police made us believe, would there be machete cuts on his hands? Will his neck almost fall off his body?
“He was taken to the Epe mortuary, but his body was refused on the ground that it was not an accident. They later took him to another mortuary. We want an autopsy of the cause of his death. He didn’t die by accident. The police know more than what they told us.”
Efforts to get the reaction of the Lagos State Police spokesman, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, were unsuccessful, as his phone rang out several times. But the IPO, Supol Ajayi of Elemoro station, said: “Everything you have been told is a lie. It was somebody who said to us that there was a lifeless body on the ground not too far from our office. So, our traffic officers went there and recovered the body, only to discover that it was the same man that we were expecting.
“How can we be held accountable for somebody a hit-and-run motorist knocked down? Or are you saying that the police conspired with the complainant to kill our suspect? You should carefully check this accusation; it doesn’t add up.”
English (US) ·