POLICE VAN KILLS FINAL YEAR STUDENT

A final year student, Edah Oghenekevwe has been killed after a police van driving against traffic knocked him in Port Harcourt, Rivers state. The Punch reports that the tragic incident happened on Sunday, December 20 when the final year student of the University of Port Harcourt was returning from church and the police van hit him at the Assemblies of God Church Junction, Alakahia.

Oghenekevwe was taken to the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital where he passed away. The police van, reportedly driven by Inspector John Kanu tried to flee but was intercepted by passersby.

An eyewitness said:

After hitting Edah (Oghenekevwe), the policemen tried to escape, but they were stopped by passersby and eyewitnesses who demanded that the victim be taken to a hospital. The policemen agreed and rushed him to the UNIPORT Teaching Hospital, but they pretended as if they found him on the road and picked him up.
I heard that they told the nurses that they were not aware of how he came about the accident. But the nurses were smart and they took down the details of one of the policemen. Unfortunately, the young man died around 7.30pm.

Mr Ahmad Muhammad, the police public relations officer confirmed the incident but denied that the police was trying to cover the case up.

We received the report of the incident, and right now, we are investigating the matter. The corpse has been deposited in a morgue and it is awaiting an autopsy.
We want to assure members of the public that there is nothing like a cover-up. Whoever is found wanting in the killing of this young man, whether it is an accident or manslaughter, will be investigated and charged to court to answer to the crime.
As of now, we cannot ascertain the cause of his death until after a post-mortem has been carried out. We are also going to arrest the culprits after collecting statements from eyewitnesses at the scene. We cannot say for now that it was a police van.

An anonymous staff of the university confirmed the incident and claimed it was a recurring incident that needed to be addressed.

Yes, he was our student and he was crushed to death by a police van which was moving against the traffic. We always have this problem and in the end, nothing comes out of it. Human rights organisation must rise and fight, not just for the slain student, but for every member of the varsity.