Delta community alleges foul play as youth leader dies in police detention

Leaders from Enenurhie community, Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State have alleged extra-judicial killing of their son.

The deceased, Mr. Oyibo Diamond, a father of five, was arrested and detained on December 20, 2023, at Ughelli A Police Division.

The community youth leader allegedly died on Christmas Eve in mysterious circumstances.

The police were said to have carried out an autopsy on him without the knowledge of the community or family members.

President General of Enenurhie, Mr. Peter Maison said Diamond was invited by the police from the Ughelli A’ Division because of an incident that happened recently where an armed robber was killed at Evwreni community.

“Probably, the police saw the phone number of my community youth leader in the phone of the deceased, who the police said is a robber or kidnapper and when they came for raiding, the youth leader was among the six persons arrested at his elder brother’s hotel in Enenurhie community.

“When we heard about the incident, we went to the station to effect their release: the police refused, they insisted that they had a particular case against the youth leader, that they had traces of call between him and the suspected deceased robber/kidnapper.

“From what the DPO told me, it looks like the boy died on Saturday, December 23 and he just kept it to himself.

“I suspect foul play. When he broke the news to me, he was panicking and regretting that if he had known, he would have released him to me on Saturday but the damage has been done.

“As a community, we are going to have legal issues with him, because the circumstances that led to his death are not too clear to us, they did not come up with the result of their investigation that made them keep him there for a number of days.

“It is surprising that the police carried out an autopsy on him without the knowledge of the community or family members just to absolve themselves from his death.

“The pathologist is somebody the same police brought on their own and I as a person will not believe any result that would be presented.

“My understanding of autopsy is not just by merely observing the body whether there is a wound on the body.

“Autopsy ought to be a thing where specialists would collect vital organs of the body and they are taken for test before coming up with a result but never did that.

“We see that they want to come for settlement but for now they should put that aside and tell us what they did to him.”

Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, (PPRO), DSP Edafe Bright, when contacted, said the suspect was sick, adding that he was taken to the hospital where he died.

“Autopsy has even been carried out which confirmed he died of natural sickness,” Edafe confirmed.