The Edo State Judicial Panel of Enquiry for victims of police brutality and related abuses has ordered the arrest of Carol Afegbai, a retired chief superintendent of police, for failing to appear before it.
Mrs Afegbai was expected to appear before the panel to explain her alleged complicity in the murder of Ibrahim Momodu, a 500 level student of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), in 2015.
At the sitting on Tuesday, December 1, in Benin City, a member of the panel, identified as A.B Thomas, said that Mrs Afegbai, who was the Divisional Police Officer of Ogida Police Station when Momodu was killed, had no reason to be absent if she has nothing to hide.
Thomas argued that if the court had not tried her then when the case was first instituted, it was because she was not included in the suit but added that as it is now; she is a party to the case.
“That we ordered her arrest and that she should be brought to this court here. If she was not arrested in the high court, if she was not arrested in the court of Appeal, it is because she was not a party, it was state versus the man who pulled the trigger but before us here, she is a member to the party and if we just go ahead to conclude my Lord, it will seem she is above the law.
Therefore, we summon the Commissioner of Police to produce Mrs. Carol Afegba before this panel,” he said.
In her ruling, Chairman of the panel, Justice Ada Ehigiamusoe (rtd) ordered the immediate arrest of Carol Afegbai.
