Fifty-two-year-old mother and evangelist, Victoria Agori, whose 21-year-old son, Daniel Agori, was shot in her presence on May 11, 2019, by cops attached to the IG Police Monitoring Unit in Rivers State, speaks to FATTEH HAMID about the refusal of the Nigeria Police to release her son’s corpse four years after he was killed.
It has been four years since men of the Nigeria Police shot and killed your son in right in your presence. Looking back, how do you feel and have you recovered from that excruciating incident?
I’m not feeling fine. I’m not even close to being fine because I’ve not seen my son’s dead body since he was shot in 2019. He haunts me in my dreams, where he has continued to insist that justice must prevail in his matter and that his corpse should be released in order to be buried. Recently, I slumped and fell in the market which gave me a wound. Family members were called to come and carry me when I slumped at the Rumuokoro market. I’ve been a shadow of myself since watching him being shot right in my presence four years ago. As a woman and a mother, I feel depressed whenever I remember what the police did to me.
I won’t lie to you; I always feel sad. I shed tears and I’ve not been able to sleep well in the last four years due to the depression I have been passing through. The incident is engraved in my mind and can’t be forgotten. Even family members tried all they could to no avail. For instance, I could be having a different conversation or preaching and before you know it, my mind would go to the incident and you would notice a change in my mood. It has been traumatic for me. I still recall with sadness how they (policemen) molested me; they opened my legs and were playing with my genitals. It was not a good scene; this is over four years already. It happened May 11, 2019, and till today, I have not been able to get justice for my son.
The panel that probed the extrajudicial killings of some Nigerians by the police ordered the release of your son’s corpse. Have the police not been compliant?
The panel asked them to release my son’s corpse to me, but they have failed to do so. Even my lawyer, who’s domiciled in Abuja, sent a junior lawyer in Rivers State to see to the release of my son’s corpse, but nothing good came out of it. Despite the huge amount of money that was spent to make that happen. We still got nothing from it. In fact, some workers at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital morgue where the policemen claimed they kept the body searched all the corpses, but they couldn’t find my son’s body. This means that the police have been lying all along; they didn’t even tell the panel the truth.
My appeal is that they should release my son’s dead body. It hasn’t been easy for me. I’m dealing with serious high blood pressure due to this incident. My BP is so high that I feel pain every day. Even my doctor recommended that I shouldn’t get angry and that my family should find a way to calm me down. I really need justice. Let the policemen involved be arrested and give me my son’s dead body to bury. After this time, if they (police) refuse to give me my son’s dead body to bury, I will go naked and walk on the road and in the market. I will go naked and be in the same form the day they stripped me naked and allowed their senior officers and Divisional Police Officer to see my naked body.
Like I said, the policemen already stripped me naked the other day and doing that by myself will not mean anything again to them. Maybe that is what they want before they will release my son’s corpse to me. I’m begging Nigerians to help me question the police who have promised to give me my son’s dead body and have refused to do so. The right thing hasn’t been done; my son hasn’t been given justice. He should be given justice because he did not commit any offence. The police should face the whole world with the truth, but they have been hiding and they can’t hide forever.
The policemen who did this are still walking free, with no prosecution, but still armed with guns. They have not even been arrested.
We were informed that the panel of inquiry awarded monetary compensation to you for the death of your son, how true is this?
Yes, N15m. That was what was awarded to us for my son’s death and for the fact that I was physically assaulted. However, this issue affected my entire family. Bullet pierced through the laps of my first son; his lap was patched. My son who is a pastor at a Redeemed Christian Church of God was beaten up by these policemen. They (policemen) only released him after I shouted continuously that he was a pastor with Redeemed Church. They collected a lot of things in the house, damaged our property and all that. When the panel awarded the money, I told them I wasn’t going to take it because the damage done to my family was mental and psychological and would live with us eternally, but I was told that we should collect it (compensation) in order to show that truly, the police wronged me and my family.
I was told that they were found guilty and that was why the panel awarded the money to us. Despite that, the police have refused to give me my son’s dead body. What is the money compared to the death of my son? What about my property that was damaged? What about the injuries inflicted on me? My lawyers asked me to accept it (N15m compensation) as evidence. After that, the panel told them to still ensure that my son’s body was released, but they have been defiant and have not heeded that order.
When did the panel of inquiry give the order for the Rivers State Police Command to release your son’s corpse?
It was in January, last year. The order was given by the panel which sat in Abuja.
What is the name of the police station where your son was shot dead?
It happened at the IG Monitoring Unit in Aluu, Rivers State. The head of the police monitoring unit at that time gave an order to an officer to shoot my son.
What were the other things that the policemen did and took from you that day?
They (policemen) used a pestle to beat me, used my husband’s hammer to assault. Again, as they took us away in their vehicle, they inserted their guns into my genitals and killed my son afterwards right in my presence at the police station. It was even bad that one of the policemen, without any remorse, started wearing my son’s cap and shoes after they killed him. It was my daughter that came around from Ghana one day and said the shoes worn by the officer was that of my late son. They also took N200,000 that I was going to share to widows. They packed a lot of things, including T-shirts. They brought their vehicle inside my compound and caused havoc. All these happened in broad daylight on a Saturday. I told them that they were thieves because how would you come to arrest someone in her house then steal from the person? Despite all of these, the policemen who perpetrated this evil have not been arrested.
After the incident, have you seen the officer who you claimed shot your son?
Yes, I have. He also called my lawyer and asked him why he (lawyer) was so committed to the matter. He also asked my lawyer why how much I paid him.
When was the last time you went to the police station to request for the corpse of your son?
It is my lawyer that has been doing that because I have been advised not to go to the police station. In fact, they sent a message that they will kill us if we come to their station. I was advised to sit at home and my lawyers are the ones doing the legwork for me.
What do you want the Nigerian government to do for you at the moment?
I want them to arrest these people and bring them to justice. Let them be dismissed, take their police uniform and kill the person who killed my son. They should give me justice. They should be asked in front of the world why they did this to me and my family. Apart from that, my son’s corpse should be released to me so that he (son) can rest in peace. I want to bury my son; they (police) are not the ones who gave birth to him.
