The Rivers State Judicial Panel of Inquiry into Police Brutality on Wednesday heard the complaints of a 50-year old man, Norde Sylvester, who shared the story of how his three-day-old baby was killed by a stray bullet fired by officers of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad in the state.
Sylvester, a civil servant with the Universal Basic Education, told the panel that the incident happened at his residence in Rumuohalu, near Port Harcourt on October 15, 2015.
According to him, he was with his family in their home at no. 9 Hon Close, off Omodudoro, few metres away from the SARS office on Nelson Mandela Road when the unfortunate incident happened.
He, however, said that the SARS officials also threatened to kill him when he went to file a complaint about the incident at their station.
“There had been shootings by SARS men, which continued till we went in to sleep.
“We woke up in the morning to discover that one of their bullets penetrated the roof and killed my only daughter, a three-day-old baby.
“I picked up the bullet and went to the SARS office. When I got there, I told them that they had killed my daughter.
“Two of the SARS men ordered me to go back, threatening that if I did not leave, I would join my daughter,” he said.
However, the counsel for the Commissioner of Police, Mercy Nweke, dismissed Sylvester’s claim, arguing that the bullet he presented hadn’t been used and so couldn’t have killed anybody.
