Commissioner of Police in Abia State, Mr. Leye Oyebade said that the force had dismissed Police Corporal Iroh Orji, for shooting two officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) at Aba.
Oyebade, who stated this while addressing newsmen on the activities of the command at the StatePolice Headquarters in Umuahia on Monday, said that Orji was tried and found guilty of the offence and had to be dismissed from the police.
"The command and the police hierarchy condemned the action of the
corporal,” he said, describing
his action as a negation of the laid down rules of the force.
his action as a negation of the laid down rules of the force.
"Police do not advise its members to use their arms" he added.
Recall that the Orji shot the officials on the Aro -Ngwa axis of the
Enugu Port- Harcourt express last month, allegedly on the order of the
Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly, Barr Chikwendu Kalu.
However, the Speaker denied the report. Speaking to journalists at
his official residence in Umuahia, Kalu also condemned the over
zealousness of the security officers said to be involved in the
incident.
The speaker who added that he was not physically present at scene of
the incident, pointed out he only sent his security details together
with his younger brother to find out the people that accosted his wife
while on her way to Aba.
"I received a distress call that while my wife was on her way to Aba
with her friend and orderly, some officers of the FRSC accosted her car,
ordered them to come out of her car and started hitting her car with
their stick, and finally dragged out her chief details, who is equally a
woman out of the car" he said.
“When I was informed of the incident, I sent my details to find out
who the people in question were, because we thought the people on that
uniform may not be right people, it was in the course of doing that the
incident happened.
“I was informed that somebody sustained a gunshot injury and we been
on top of the situation, trying to find out what really happened. But I
want to say that with every sense of responsibility and humility that
I’m well informed about the importance of human life, and equally aware
of the provisions of section 33, sub-section (1) of the 1999
constitution as amended that forbids taking away one’s life, I’m equally
aware of the sister provision of section 33 sub-section (2) of the same
constitution on the mode a human life could be taken.
“I strongly condemn any over zealousness on the side of any security
personnel be the person a member of the Police, Road Safety, the Army
and Department of States services. I think I will be the last person to
encourage it because it doesn’t augur well with State and the Country at
large.
"I’m well informed enough to know that I don’t have the authority to
order anybody to shoot and I can’t even encourage such an action, even
in the highest degree of provocation, I think I will move to the law
court as practicing lawyer, before I joined politics”