Cop arrested for killing two women at funeral

 

The Edo State Police Command has arrested a police corporal for shooting two women to death during a funeral at Ivhiokhile quarters, Fugar, in the Etsako Central Local Government Area of the state.

It was gathered that one of the women, Sandra Imhaku, was hit by a bullet from the yet-to-be-identified police officer’s gun last Saturday.

The gun went off while the cop was trying usher his principal, said to be a traditional ruler, into a vehicle.

The corporal was said to have held his rifle with one hand, while opening the door for the traditional ruler to enter his car as they were about to depart from the venue.

A source explained that the stray bullet had narrowly missed a two-month old baby strapped on the late woman’s back before hitting her in the neck. She was seated among other guests at the ceremony.

The source disclosed that Imhaku had been rushed to Irrua Specialist Hospital, Irrua, where she died on Sunday.

It was learnt that another bullet hit the other woman, identified only as Mrs. Saliu, from Delta State, who was said to have died instantly.

The incident, it was gathered, led to a pandemonium as angry youths descended on the policemen at the event, who however, fled for their lives.

Efforts to get the identity of the police officer from the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Stephen Onwochei, were unsuccessful at the time of filing the report.

But it was learnt that the corporal was arrested on Saturday after stray bullets from his rifle killed the two women who were guests at the ceremony.

The Commissioner of Police, Samuel Adegbuyi, who confirmed the arrest, said that a case of accidental discharge, which claimed the lives of two women, was reported to him on Saturday.

He said the officer would be arraigned in court at the end of the police investigations.

“The officer has been arrested and investigation has commenced and very soon, on completion of the investigation, he will be arraigned in court,” Adegbuyi said.