The family of Police Inspector Michael Udoh Idiong attached to Ishielu
Police Station, Ebonyi State Command, who was reportedly killed by a
reckless lorry driver on February 19 this year has petitioned the
Inspector General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase accusing the police and
the hospital he was taken to of negligence leading to his death.
The incident reportedly happened after an unnamed
lorry driver drove recklessly and ran over the middle-aged Inspector
while he was on duty with his colleagues. The driver was said to have
been detained after the incident but family members to the deceased
doubted the claim saying no one saw the suspect in police custody.
divisional police officer in-charge of the station to his wounded
colleague after the incident.Raymond Michael, the deceased Inspector’s
son narrated how his father was allegedly killed to Crime Alert. He said,
“ At about 6am on the 19th of February, 2016, I saw a missed call from
my father’s phone number but I did not immediately call back, hoping
that he would call me again. Shortly after, my mother called and told me
that someone had also called her with her husband’s (my father’s) phone
number and informed her that he had an accident the previous night, and
asked if there was anyone in Ebonyi who could come and stay with him at
the hospital, as he (the caller) wanted to leave the hospital.
Trip to Ebonyi from Calabar
“My mother immediately left Calabar for Ebonyi and on getting to my
father’s station- Ishielu Police Station, Ebonyi State Command she was
taken to Maria Ines Hospital, Umuzoke – Ezillo Abakaliki, where my
father was receiving treatment. She met him unconscious, with plasters
on his head and a deep cut on his hand. My mother inquired what happened
to her husband and how it happened, but she was told ‘you should even
thank your God you met him alive.”
At Ishielu Police station Raymond further stated that his mother
approached the Divisional Police Officer of Ishielu Police Station and
he told her that his father had an accident involving a 911 lorry, but
failed to offer any explanation as to how the accident happened. He
said;
“My father regained some consciousness but, could not say what happened
to him; he only managed to mumble few incomprehensible words, not
relating to what happened to him. On the 22nd of February when the
plaster on my father’s head was removed to dress the wound, my mother
discovered that he had a stitched deep cut on the head.
Doctors at war
“On the 25th of February, the doctor who had been attending to him took a
day off and another doctor took over treatment. But when the first
doctor resumed the next day, he complained that the second doctor and
the nurses were not treating him according to his prescriptions in the
patient’s file. The DPO told my mother that the lorry driver was
detained at the police station awaiting arraignment in court.”
Mr Raymond added that his late father did not receive the necessary medical attention and this led to his death.
The family has therefore petitioned the Inspector – General of Police
through the Network For Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) alleging that
the Inspector died because of the shabby treatment he received from the
hospital which they alleged lacked equipments such as oxygen, needed to
sustain him coupled with alleged negligence from the police in Ishielu
division. The Inspector was on the 27th February, referred to the
Teaching Hospital in Abakaliki and the doctors said he needed a CT scan
to ascertain if there was blood in his brain, but the Teaching Hospital
didn’t have the CT scanner, and complained that he should have been
brought earlier so that he could be stabilized.
On February 28th he was taken to Enugu for the scan but he eventually died later that evening.
No police representation during burial
“The deceased Inspector’s wife requested the police to make the police
ambulance available for her to convey her husband’s corpse home to
Calabar, but the police said their ambulance was not in order. His
children rallied and got an ambulance for N30, 000 to convey the
remains, and the DPO hesitantly gave the wife the sum of N10, 000 but
refused her request for a police escort to convey the corpse home.
She had to accompany her husband’s corpse alone. The police also refused
to carry out an autopsy on the body of the deceased Inspector who had
served the Police Force for 33 years. The deceased Police Inspector was
awaiting a promotion to the next rank of Assistant Superintendent of
Police (ASP) between March and April 2016. Cause of death still unknown
“The injuries on the deceased Inspector’s head and hand were deep cuts,
not bruises and were both stitched The family finds it curious how an
accident with a lorry could just cause deep cuts on the head and hand.
The police are yet to give the family any detailed, convincing and
satisfactory explanation as to how the so-called accident that resulted
to the death of their breadwinner happened.
” Unseen driver charged
The petition further read “ The family learned that the Inspector was on
night duty with his colleagues on that fateful night when the
‘accident’ happened .Before the Inspector’s corpse was conveyed from
Ebonyi to Calabar, the DPO had on Monday, 29th February, told the
Inspector’s wife that the lorry driver had been charged to court,
although the family never had the opportunity to see him and ask him
questions or to even hear from any of the other officers who were on
duty with the Inspector.”