The alleged killing of Chima Ikwunado, a mechanic in Port Harcourt, Rivers, by some officers of the Nigerian police force in the state, has sparked outrage on social media platforms.

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Comrade Phils, an activist, had taken to his Facebook page to disclose that the brother and a client of the deceased narrated to him how men attached to the E Crack, Mile 1 police station, carried out the act.

According to him, the client disclosed that he gave his car to the deceased to fix its air-conditioning system on December 19, 2019.

The next day, he tried reaching Chima, the deceased, via phone but he was unreachable. He then decided to visit the mechanic shop and still couldn’t find Chima and his car. Upon further inquiry from other mechanics at the shop, it was discovered that the deceased was apprehended by the police.

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He said the client subsequently visited different police stations till he got to the Mile 1 police station and saw his car parked outside the Eagle Crack division.

The client said upon identifying himself as the car owner, he had a gun pointed at him and was chased out of the station. For fear of being shot at, he left as instructed.

As he went home to restrategise on how to tackle the issue, he said he was visited by Obinna, a brother to the deceased, who explained that Chima and some other colleagues were testing two cars, his and a Toyota Camry, after repairs.

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Due to the terrible traffic at the time they decided to drive through a one-way route where they were apprehended by the police.

Obinna said that the policemen asked for bribes but were not satisfied with the amount offered by Chima and his colleagues and immediately accused them of stealing the two cars.

The police allegedly took the cash on them, a total of N150,000, handcuffed them and took them to the police station where they were subjected to “brutal torture”.

One of the arrested suspects, who couldn’t bear the torture anymore, confessed to them breaking into a lady’s home and stealing the cars.

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With the knowledge of the reason behind the arrest, Chima’s client proceeds to claim his car. Accompanied by an Airforce commander, he takes copies of the original car documents to the station.

After much back and forth, the car was eventually released to him but Chima and his colleagues remained in the custody of the police.

On January 2, the client disclosed he received a call from a barrister who was defending Chima’s colleagues.

It was during this conversation, it was discovered Chima had died from the torture and his colleagues had been sent to prison with decaying sores from wounds inflicted on them during torture.

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The heart-wrenching tale has since sparked outrage on Twitter as users have united with the hashtag #JusticeForChima to register their annoyance.

“Chima POLICE killers MUST be brought to book,” a Twitter user demanded.

“To start with, The IG of @PoliceNG should resign for how horrible the Force has become under him.
I hope by now, those police officers that killed Chima are already in detention. They should be charged for Murder.
Apparently, the Police can’t be reformed. #JusticeForChima,” another user said.

Here’s what some Nigerians had to say:



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