20th August, 2015
Jethro Ibileke/Benin
A midnight operation by operatives of the Edo state Command of the Department of Security Service (DSS), to arrest a suspect whose name was given as Omozokpia, over fraud-related crime, turned tragic in Ekpoma, with the operatives reportedly killing the father of the suspect, Christopher Irabor.
The late Irabor who was said to be a porter in the School of Medicine of the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, was said to have been shot inside his room when the DSS operatives stormed his residence at Uwene quarters, Illeh village in Ekpoma, Esan West Local Government Area of the State.
The operatives were said to have trailed Omozokpia from Benin City to Ekpoma.
Narrating their ordeal, the wife of the victim, Faith Irabor, said the DSS officials came to their house at about 12 midnight and forced everybody outside.
She explained that her husband held the door to their room to prevent the security operatives from gaining entrance but was eventually overpowered.
Mrs. Irabor further narrated that one of the DSS officials shoved a gun into her husband and she heard a loud bang after which her husband fell down and died.
She said the security operatives shot sporadically and later took away her younger son because Omozokpia, the first son they came for was not at home.
However, a source at the office of the DSS in Benin who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that the late porter was shot because he attempted to disarm one of them, adding that, the victim first hit one of the operatives with a cutlass before struggling for the gun.
He said they got to the residence with a friend of the suspect and when the friend knocked, occupants of the building refused to open the door.
He said they broke in and started assembling occupants in the house but those in a particular room refused to come out, noting that, it was when they attempted to break into the room that the victim used cutlass on one of them and attempted to collect the gun.