By CrossRiverWatch admin
Court proceedings in the ongoing case of extra-judicial killing involving 14 dismissed police officers, continued on Thursday, April 28, 2016 with one Dr. T. I Ugbem, a consultant pathologist with the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, tendering a certified true copy of the post mortem examination he conducted on the late Derek Maurice Ben and five others who were victims of the gruesome murder by the dismissed policemen.
The case is pending before the Cross River State High Court No. 4, Mary Slessor Avenue, Calabar and presided over by the Hon. Justice Obojor Ogar.
Dr. Ugbem gave his evidence-in-chief and was thoroughly cross-examined by the defence lawyers.
Excerpt of his testimony include the following;
– That he did post mortem for six corpses which were brought to the Anatomy Department of UNICAL (a training institution), by the SARS men on the 17/04/2014, and his attention was drawn to it on the 24/04/2014 and post mortem examination conducted on the 28/04/2014.
– That he did not know any Derek, because their names were not on the forms given to him by the policemen.
– That the six corpses had bullet wounds on the chest and no bullet was retained in the body which, according to him, is an indication that the bullets were fired at a close range.
– That there was also laceration, bruises, cuts in different locations most prominently on three of those corpses, which is as a result of being tortured or brutalized.
– in a sharp cross-examination by one of the defence lawyers, the witness maintained his position and further elucidated on the differences between lacerations and bruises.
Building on the ongoing investigation by CrossRiverWatch and other independent investigators, CrossRiverWatch has been reliably informed by impeccable police sources that the dismissed policemen currently standing trial at the Calabar High Court under Justice Obojor Ogar (Court Room 4) “have completed plans to start witch hunting, brutalizing and victimizing those on the path of justice including the deceased families.”
The top police sources who spoke to CrossRiverWatch under anonymity went on to reveal that “they (the dismissed officers) plan to do all this by any means possible to ensure they bend the hands of justice. They can only do this by forcefully commanding a detainee whose case is really dirty to mention names and include specific names or by planting things in peoples home or cooking funny arrests.”
Another source in the Cross River State judiciary who also prefers anonymity disclosed that “justice is may no longer be obtained from court 4. I say so because Justice Ashu Ewa who is an elder brother of Raphael Ewa one of the accused, has converted the judge else those men would not have been granted bail under no condition considering the gravity of the case. Besides, in the morning of the day they were admitted to bail, news was already everywhere that they were going to be granted bail as their lawyers bragged despite the fact that the issue of bail was for the judge’s discretion.”
Another big wig in the Cross River judiciary went on to say that “the only judge that can deliver justice if the State Government is committed to allow justice prevail and set a standard example, is perhaps Hon. Justice Onyebueke, but again it is the absolute discretion of the Chief Judge to decide who handles the case. However with how the pendulum is moving, I am afraid, these men might go free. I don’t pray it happens anyway but the way the case is going, one day it might be struck out and it will be difficult to get justice through appeal because most judges hate waking up cases struck out.”
Meanwhile, the case has been adjourned to the 9th and 10th of June 2016, 9am prompt at High Court 4, Mary Slessor Avenue, Calabar for continuation of hearing.