Benue kinsmen put pressure on IGP to order release of Police killed in Anambra communal clashes

The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu has been petitioned by the family of Udeh Orokpo of Efugo Otukpa in Ogbadibo Local Government Area of Benue State to release the corpse of Mr. ASP Akor who was killed in Anambra communal clashes.

Late ASP Akor Udeh, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, the family believes, must have been killed during a communal clash between the people of Odekpe and Alla communities in Anambra West council area of the state during which four people were alleged to have been killed and one person kidnapped.

His younger brother, Mr. Simon Patrick Akor, who signed the petitioned on behalf of the family and made available to journalists in Awka explained that Mr. Akor, was serving at Mopol 29 Anambra State, and has not been in contact with his family since April 23, 2020 after the communal clash.

The report said, Akor went with other colleagues to quell the bloody boundary dispute between Odekpe and Alla communities in Anambra West local council area of Anambra State on the said date after after which four persons were reportedly feared killed.

He stressed that the officers were ambushed and kidnapped by youths from the community, but Akor was not fortunate to be released like others.

He narrated: “a strange person used ASP Udeh’s phone number and called me as his younger brother and told me that my senior brother has been killed and his body buried in a shallow grave in one of the disputed communities.

“The caller said he would throw away the phone and the SIM card after that call so that it’s not used to trace him. True to his words, the number has not been reachable since then”, he added.

He added: “Since then, i have made every possible attempt to know the true situation of things from the Anambra State Police Command but they have been resorting to hide and seek.

“The State Police Public Relations Officer is not answering my calls while the DPRO keep saying “they will get back to the family”.

“We therefore call on the Inspector General of Police to please urgently come clean and tell the family, the fate of the missing officer

“If Officer Akor is still alive, we call on the IGP to help facilitate his release to reunite him with his family as his wife was delivered of a baby boy on April 26, 2020 in his absence.

“If indeed he has been killed, the least we demand from the police authority whom he served diligently for many years is to help us secure his corpse for the family to give him a befitting burial.

“The mental torture and psychological trauma the family has gone through in the last few days is unbearable.

“We will also appreciate any individual that can help with any useful piece of information that could lead to the release of our brother, ASP Akor, dead or alive”, he concluded.

In his reaction on the incident, the Command’s Public Relations Officer, Haruna Mohammed, said the missing officer was among the personnel deployed to maintain peace in Odekpe on Thursday last week following Communal clash between the two warring communities but since then the officer was missing and effort is ongoing by the Command to locate his where about.