Abia State Judicial Panel on Police Brutality, Extra-Judicial Killings and Allied Matters has directed that hearing notice be served on the 14 Brigade of the Nigerian Army in Ohafia, Abia State.
The chairman, Justice Sunday Imo (rtd.), who was Chief Judge of the state, gave the order yesterday. The notice is to compel the brigade and its commander as respondents to attend its session on February 16, 2021 to cross-examine one Mrs. Esther Aghaunor.
Mrs. Aghaunor’s family had filed a petition against the Army before the panel, and while testifying before the panel at the weekend, she alleged that soldiers shot her younger brother, Chukwudi Ijedinma, dead at Ariaria Junction, Aba, about 12.30pm on Wednesday, October 21, 2020 without justification. She described the killing as a violation of his brother’s right to life, and demanded N50 million as compensation to the family.
According to her, a witness told her that Chukwudi neither challenged nor exchanged words with any soldier, when he was shot in cold blood.
“About an hour later, the soldiers brought their Hilux van and took Chukwudi’s body and four other dead bodies and departed. About a week later, we learnt that the soldiers threw Chukwudi’s body into a pit at Ihie in Ugwunagbo Council,” she alleged.
Continuing, she submitted that on October 29, 2020, she and her husband, with the aid of the police at Ugwunagbo Divisional Police Headquarters, retrieved the remains of Chukwudi and deposited it at Paradise Mortuary in Ihie.
She lamented that her late brother was the only male child among the eight children of their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Ijedinma, adding: “There will be no male child in the family to continue the family’s line.”
