Mudiaga Affe, Calabar
A consultant pathologist at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital in Calabar, Cross River State, Dr. Theophilus Ugbem, has told the court that the six victims who were killed by policemen had bullet wounds from close range gunshots.
Fourteen policemen attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in the State Police Command were indicted for the extra judicial killing of a 300-level student in the Department of Accounting, University of Calabar, Derek Maurice-Enang, and five others on April 17, 2014 on allegations that the victims were armed robbers.
The policemen, including three senior officers (names withheld), were indicted for extra judicial killing and dismissed from the service following the recommendation of a panel set up by a former Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone Six Command, Mr. Musa Daura.
At the resumed trial of the dismissed policemen at the State High Court in Calabar on Thursday, Ugbem, who carried out the post-mortem, testified that no bullet was retained in the bodies of the victims, which was an indication that they were all shot at close range.
During the cross-examination by Mr. Nta Nta, one of the defence lawyers to the 14 dismissed cops, Ugbem said, “I did postmortem for six corpses, which were brought to the Anatomy Department of University of Calabar by the SARS men on April 17, 2014 and my attention was drawn to it on the April 24, 2014.
“The postmortem examination was conducted on the April 28, 2014. I did not know any Derek because their names were not on the forms given to me by the policemen.
“The six corpses had bullet wounds on the chest and no bullet was retained in the body, which is an indication that the bullets were fired at a close range. There was also laceration, bruises, cuts in different locations most prominently on three of those corpses, which is as a result of being tortured or brutalised.”
Ugbem went further to tender the certified true copy of the postmortem examination he conducted on the late Derek Maurice-Enang and five others.
The presiding judge of the state High Court (4), Justice Obojor Ogar, thereafter adjourned the matter to June 9 and 10, 2016 for continuation in the suit number HC/37C/2016.
The court had on April 6 granted bail to the accused dismissed policemen