Controversy is surrounding the murder of Mr. Emmanuel Nkim, an ex- legislative aide in the National Assembly, on July 12, 2017, on his way from a church programme at the Winners Chapel headquarters in Rivers State.
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Contrary to the assertion of police that the deceased was a victim of armed robbery attack, Mr. Nkim’s widow, Mrs. Esther Nkim, a Federal Road Safety Corps officer, claimed policemen killed her spouse.
The widow’s claim was contained in a petition she wrote to the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), Zone 6, where she accused the police of deliberately killing her husband.
In the petition titled: “Gruesome Murder of My Husband by Men of Operation Skolombo in Calabar” and dated July 18, Mrs. Nkim claimed that her husband was heading home from church around 8.00pm in his Toyota Avensis car on the fateful day, and had dropped off his uncle when he was abducted by gunmen around Murtala Mohammed Highway by Lema junction.
According to her, a cyclist who was at the scene rushed to where a police patrol vehicle was to inform the police of the robbery.
The petition reads in part, ” The police gave a pursuit and the assailants abandoned the vehicle and fled into the bush at Tinapa road, but instead of the operatives rescuing the victim, they elected to shoot the victim dead, who was the only one in the car, tagging him ‘an armed robber.
“They took his body to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Calabar, where they handed it over to their colleagues in Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). The SARS in turn took the body to the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital mortuary where it was deposited and embalmed on their instructions.”
The widow appealled to the AIG to “cause proper and discreet investigation to be carried out into the matter and culprits brought to book.”
