BY PETER DURU
MAKURDI – The last may not have been heard of the sudden death of 30-year- old Terzungwe Shaakaa, a father of three, in the detention cell of Benue State Police Command Headquarters in Makurdi after allegedly engaging fellow inmates in a brawl.
Elder sister of the deceased, who until his death was a mason, Christiana Nyikwagh, has alleged Police complicity in the saga and called for independent investigations into the death of her brother in a police cell.
Benue State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Deputy Superintendent Daniel Ezeala, told newsmen last week that the deceased was arrested in Makurdi for alleged robbery and was about to face trial before his sudden death.
He said: "Shaakaa engaged his fellow cell inmates in a fight for undisclosed reasons and thereafter slumped. His fellow inmates drew the attention of the Police to his condition and he was immediately rushed to the police clinic for first aid treatment.
"When his condition was not improving, he was subsequently rushed to the Federal Medical Centre, Makurdi, where he eventually gave up the ghost."
The PPRO further said that seven of the inmates who allegedly beat up Terzungwe to death in the cell were undergoing interrogation pending their prosecution in court.
However, when Vanguard spoke with some of the inmates who were alleged to have been involved in a brawl with the deceased, they denied the allegation.
One Samuel Changba, who identified himself as the cell chairman and Terlum Ukilo, claimed that the deceased was not beaten up by anyone.
He said: "Though he entered the cell with wounds all over his face, he hit his head severally on the wall of the cell in protest of the alleged failure of his sister to take him on bail. He did it repeatedly until he passed out and eventually died. Nobody touched him."
However, a new twist on the cause of the death of the late Terzungwe cropped up, midweek, when his elder sister, Christiana Nyikwagh, disclosed that before his death, Terzungwe had a misunderstanding with some policemen attached to the Criminal Investigation Department, CID, of the State Police Command, at a beer parlour on the night of October 11, 2012, at the High Level area of Makurdi, after which the police officers allegedly invited their colleagues who allegedly beat Terzungwe to stupor.
Mrs. Nyikwagh told Vanguard that her late brother, who lived at 15, Balewa Street, High Level, in Makurdi, was not a robber, contrary to the allegation against him by the Police. She said her brother had returned home that fateful night after his brush with the security men only for the two policemen to trail him to his residence with other companions who pounced on him, threatening to deal with anybody who dared to come to his aid.
She, however, said she spoke with her brother in one of her failed efforts to take him on bail just as some witnesses at Balewa Crescent said that the policemen who beat the deceased to stupor were armed, hence their inability to come to his rescue for fear of being killed.
Vanguard Nigeria
Police always have an hand in bad things.
They are known for that!
they are even committing more crimes in the cell