Imo community asks Army to probe soldier’s death
“Regrettably, all efforts by our client’s delegates to interface with the Army authorities at Aba failed as they were prevented access to the facility, even after introducing themselves and their mission to some senior officers. This prompted them to return without seeing the wife of the late officer.”
The petition further averred that the community became worried when seven days after the incident, the Army did not release any official information or notify the family about the whereabouts of their breadwinner, instead, it was reported that the deceased committed suicide.
Not satisfied with the suicide report the community, in the petition, “questions how on the date of the incident, while reporting the alleged suicide incident of a man who was said not to have left a suicide note, the Army can say that ‘findings revealed that the SNCO decided to take his life based on some of the allegations against him.’ Who conducted the findings? When were the findings conducted?”
It added, “Our client strongly contends that the above stories were made up to cover an obvious assassination of an officer who has served his fatherland for several years, defended his country during his youthful years, and was preparing to retire in three months.”
“Again, our client is worried that the sick wife of the late officer who is suffering from a stroke was whisked away with his children and all occupants of his house and detained at the Ngwa High School for over 48 hours without sympathy and in gross violation of their rights to liberty and human dignity.
“To date, the Army authorities are yet to notify the family and the general public of the incident at Ngwa High School and what truly transpired.
“Our client contends that the late officer did not need the rifle of another person to commit suicide, since he had his rifle and a pistol attached to him as a Warrant Officer. Our client strongly suspects that their son was killed by those who framed him with the IPOB/ESN collaboration allegation because they know that the late officer will come out clean from the allegation.
Efforts to reach the Army authorities proved abortive as calls and messages sent to the known number of the spokesperson were neither picked up nor replied to.
