BY ADEMETO ADELEKAN
THE Edo State Panel of Inquiry on allegations of human rights violations by the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad has ordered the arrest of a retired Chief Superintended of Police, CSP Carol Afegbai.
The order was given following the CSP’s failure to appear before the Panel to explain her alleged involvement in the murder of Ibrahim Momodu, a 500 Level student of the University of Benin, in 2015.
A member of the panel, identified as A. B. Thomas, had at the sitting on Tuesday, claimed that Afegbai was serving as the Divisional Police Officer at Ogida Police Station when the student was killed.
The member said there was no reason for the DSP not to have appeared before the panel to explain her involvement in the matter if she was not hiding anything from the public.
Thomas argued, “If she was not arrested in the High Court; if she was not arrested in the Court of Appeal, it was because she was not a party. It was state versus the man who pulled the trigger. But before us here, she is a member of the party. 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 Afegbai before this panel.”
The Chairman of the panel, Justice Ada Ehigiamusoe (retd) subsequently ordered the immediate arrest of Afegbai.
“Earlier, the panel had summoned the respondent to appear before this panel in today’s proceedings and it is on record that she has failed to do so.
“It is of the view, therefore, of this panel that the respondent, having failed to appear before the said panel, a warrant of arrest should be issued against her,” she said in her ruling.
“Accordingly, it is hereby ordered that a warrant of arrest be issued forthwith on the said respondent who is named Carol Afegbai who shall appear before this panel following the order of this panel on the 9th day of December 2020, ” she ordered.
The late Momodu was killed close to his family house at No 1, Igbobaewaye Street, off Siluko Road, around the Textile Mill Junction, in 2015.
