It was a tragic evening in Lagos last Thursday when a 36-year-old man, Ugochukwu Ozuah, was shot dead at about 10 p .m. by men in police uniform. The deceased got married to his heartthrob just five days before his life was cut short in a gruesome manner. Daily Sun learnt that Ozuah was in company with a friend, Mr. Irikefe Omene, when the incident happened.
The deceased had conveyed his friend to UPS junction in Gbagada area of the metropolis to enable Omene to catch a taxi to his destination. The two young men had alighted from the deceased’s car and were about looking for a cab for Irikefe when men in police uniform accosted them, demanding for their identity. And suddenly, one of the policemen allegedly fired a shot at the deceased. “He was shot in the heart and the bullet pierced through him and escaped through the back,” the deceased’s in-law, Mr. Chuba Nnonyelu, told the reporter.
Ozuah was married to Joan, his lovely hearttrob just Saturday, September 15. Their elaborate wedding was well attended by friends, families and church members at The Redeemed Evangelical Mission, (TREM) where it held amidst pomp and ceremony at the church’s national headquarters in Gbagada, Lagos. When Daily Sun called at the deceased’s parent’s home in Maryland, Lagos, yesterday, grief was written all over the faces of everyone. Friends, families and neigbhours were in a mournful mood.
Mr. Nnonyelu, who spoke with the reporter said: “My wife was called late Thursday night and Joan, the deceased’s newly wed, was screaming on the phone, saying she couldn’t understand what Ozuah’s friends were telling her on phone about her husband. My wife told Joan to calm down. So, they later called back and the friend who was with Ugochukwu when he was shot told us that they were shot. He said Ugochukwu and his friend were in the deceased’s car.
He was to drop him at the UPS Bus Stop at Gbagada that night about 10p.m. They had alighted from the car and were looking for a cab when some men in police uniforms accosted them. They were shouting at them, demanding that they reveal their identity when suddenly a gunshot rang out and the men ran helter skelter as Ugochukwu crashed down immediately. Irikefe said he hurriedly ran to Anthony Police Station to report and the policemen followed him to the scene of the crime. “When he returned to the scene with the policemen, other policemen had joined some sympatizers to save Ugochukwu who was already in a pool of his own blood. The bullet actually hit him on the chest, pierced through his body and escaped through his back.
“They rushed him to a major hospital at GRA, Ikeja, but the doctor there said that Ugochukwu died about 20 minutes before he was brought in. Irikefe said the policemen followed him to the hospital and he also went to their station to report the matter and wrote his statement. But the DPO of Anthony Police Station told me that Irikefe had not written his statement.” When the reporter spoke to Irikefe on phone, he sounded very traumatized. He said: “I am not well-disposed now.
The doctor is here attending to me. I will see you tomorrow. I actually wrote a statement about what happened to Ugochukwu at the Anthony police station that night.” Pressed further to brief the reporter on what he wrote at the police station, a man who introduced himself as the deceased’s family lawyer stopped the interaction, saying that he needed to interview him first, saying Irikefe could then talk to the press. Meanwhile, in a telephone conversation with the reporter on phone, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, (PPRO), Mrs. Ngozi Braide, said that the men who shot Ugochukwu were armed robbers in police uniform, saying they were not in a police van and that there were no policemen on duty at that place that night.
Her words: “ The DPO of Anthony Police Station has briefed me about the incident. He said that at about 10:30 p.m that Thursday, he got a call that there was a gunshot around the UPS junction in Gbagada and he took his men to the scene and there they saw the deceased in the pool of his own blood. “The armed robbers had run away at the time the DPO and his men got to the scene.
The deceased’s friend later met them at the scene and they asked him to go with them to the police station to make statements but he declined. The DPO said Irikefe Omene did not write any statement on the incident at the police station that night.” The late Ozuah hailed from Awka Local Government Area of Anambra State. The deceased’s family said his wife, Mrs. Joan Ozuah, who he had married five days before his death, was too traumatized to talk to the reporter.
