Police reportedly reinstate officer who killed 6 Igbo traders

The victims, Ekene Isaac Mgbe, Ifeanyi Ozor, Chinedu Meniru, Paulinus Ogbonna, Anthony Nwokike, and Augustina Arebuwere were killed on June 7, 2005, in Apo township, a satellite settlement at the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja.

They were said to be returning from a nightclub when they were stopped at a police checkpoint and murdered by a team of policemen led by Danjuma.

According to Sahara Reporters, Danjuma's reinstatement was contained in a Police wireless message (DTO 1718000/11/2017) addressed to the Police Service Commission.

The message claims that the reinstatement of the officer and other police officers included in the message followed the successful "appeal of their dismissal from the Force".

The other officers are Fausat Azeez Oduwole, an Assistant Commissioner of Police; Bethram C Onuoha, Chief Superintendent, Okwuonu Allwell, a Chief Superintendent; Nonyerem Ejike Akubuike; a Deputy Superintendent of Police; Barakiya Yusuf and Onuorah Emmanuel, both Assistant Superintendents of Police.

However, the appeal of one of them, Oseni Tajudeen, was rejected and his dismissal upheld, the report said.

The message also showed that Danjuma will receive arrears of his salary dating back to June 18, 2005, and that he would be sent on a refresher course.

Danjuma was said to be the officer who shot some of the traders.

The police had claimed that the victims, aged between 21 and 25 years, were members of a robbery gang that had shot at the officers at a checkpoint.

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But a judicial panel of inquiry set up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo dismissed the police account and recommended the trial of the officers for extra-judicial killings.

The trial prolonged for over a decade until two of the officers were sentenced to death in March 2017.

But surprisingly, Danjuma was freed by the judge who presided over the case.

Despite the testimonies of the officers accused of the killings and eight other police witnesses, who said Danjuma ordered the killings, the DCP still got his job back.