The search for the real killers continue as police defiles court order

Probe the Oyerinde murder arrests

on AUGUST 24, 2012 · in EDITORIAL

5:00 am

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THE search for the real killers of the late Principal Private Secretary to the Governor of Edo State, Comrade Olaitan Oyerinde, is rapidly turning into another show of shame amidst conflicting efforts by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and the Department of State Security Services (SSS).

Shortly after the dastardly murder took place on Thursday, May 4, 2012 in the deceased’s private residence in Benin City, the SSS, acting on Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s ultimatum on the security agencies to fish out the killers, paraded six suspects in Abuja.

Not to be outdone, the Police also paraded another group of six suspects in Benin City, alleging that they were the real culprits. The Benin suspects named one “David” as the person who sponsored them to do the job, and the Police promptly pulled in Reverend David Ugolor, a civil rights activist and close friend of Olaitan, who was also seen with Olaitan on the night he was murdered.

Since then, civil society and human rights groups commenced a massive campaign for the release of Ugolor from detention, saying the facts the Police proffered were not enough to warrant his continued detention without trial. Then on August 17, 2012, a Benin High Court presided over by Justice Esther Edigin, ordered the immediate and unconditional release of Ugolor, an order that the Police authorities were yet to comply with at the time this editorial was being written.

We are deeply perturbed by these developments. The conflicting actions by our law enforcement agencies only suggest that one of them is holding the wrong set of suspects.

It follows that unless the real suspects are immediately ascertained and put on trial while the innocent ones are let go, there will be a miscarriage of justice. There are also clear signs that some faceless individuals might be behind a possible scheme to derail the course of justice and shield the killers of Comrade Oyerinde from justice.

We call on the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN) as the Chief Law Officer of the Federation, to immediately wade into this issue and ensure that neither the plethora of human rights and civil society groups nor the unseen hands apparently manipulating one of the law enforcement agencies will succeed in putting undue pressures to derail the course of justice.

The National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR) should go beyond merely making calls for the Police to obey the order of the courts.

The real sponsors of Oyerinde’s murder must be exposed no matter how highly placed or connected. President Goodluck Jonathan should seize this opportunity to make good his promise to end the spectre of unsolved murders.