LAGOS—THE family of late slain founder and executive director of Nigerian Aviation Safety Initiative (NASI), Capt. Jerry Agbeyegbe, is accusing the police of being sloppy in the handling of his case, ahead of the official release of his autopsy report today.
Capt. Agbeyegbe was shot dead by unknown persons around 3:00a.m. last Tuesday at Alapere on the Lagos-Oworonshoki Expressway, but men of Alapere police station reported a case of fatal accident.
Sources close to the family told Vanguard yesterday that the police at Alapere admitted that Capt. Agbeyegbe, after he had been shot, gave them two telephone numbers with which to contact his family to alert them of his situation. He was said to have also given the name of a particular person who turned out to be the wife.
According to the sources, the police neither dialled any of the numbers nor made effort to take him to the hospital for medical attention, even though he had his two mobile phones in the car, a BMW five series saloon car. “Even when madam tried to reach out to the two phones, they kept ringing without response. This continued until around 7:00a.m. before somebody who identified himself as a policeman at Alapere police station answered to inform that Capt. Agbeyegbe was involved in an accident and asked her to come over.
“What this meant was that Capt. Agbeyegbe was still alive probably up till the time he was moved to Isolo General Hospital mortuary because the doctor at the hospital said he was brought in a police vehicle lying on one side of his body. It is not possible for some one who is dead to lie on the side of his body,” said the sources.
It was learnt that as soon as the wife got to Alapere police station, she was asked if she was the person he gave her name as the person to contact, and which she answered in the affirmative. The sources said all the disclosures made by the police on the morning of the incident were not convincing, adding that the same police officer who said Capt. Agbeyegbe gave him two numbers to call his family changed his statement later to say he found the numbers on the complimentary cards found on the floor of the car.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Aviation Safety Initiative (NASI) and the Socio-Economic Rights Initiative (SERI) are to address a joint press conference on the matter on Monday. The Lagos State Police Commissioner, Mr Israel Ajao, is also expected to address reporters on the issue.
