by Adelani Adepegba
Lucy Ukpong
| credits:
| credits:
The
police have pleaded with the family of Lucy Ukpong, a sales girl that
was shot dead by policemen from the FCT Police Command, for an amicable
settlement of the matter.
It was gathered that the parents of the
deceased and other relations had met with some police officers over the
killing of the girl, but the meeting was not conclusive on how the
matter should be settled.
Our correspondent learnt that the family
were considering settling the matter through judicial process or
payment of compensation by the police.
This revelation came just just as the
family had concluded arrangements to collect Lucy’s remains from Garki
Hospital on Friday (today) for burial in Akwa Ibom State on Saturday.
Lucy, a sales girl at a photography shop
in Apo, Abuja was hit in the chest by bullets allegedly fired by
policemen from the FCT Special Anti-robbery Squad on October 12. Three
others sustained gunshot wounds during the incident.
The 20-year-old girl was inside the shop
when she was killed by policemen who had come to enforce the order on
demolition of illegal structures by officials of development control
department. The deceased had only spent a month on her job before the
incident.
Findings however indicated that the
policemen were on an illegal duty as the Abuja Metropolitan Management
Council said they were not authorised to enforce any demolition exercise
during the period.
The residents of the area had resisted
moves to carry out the demolition exercise, leading to a confrontation
and sporadic gunshots by the policemen.
A family source told our correspondent
on Thursday that the Federal Capital Territory Administration gave the
family N1.8m for funeral expenses while the FCT Police Command provided
coffin, ambulance and what it called logistics support to the family.
The source stated that the police were
begging Lucy’s family for an amicable settlement of the matter, though
the family members were yet to accept their entreaties.
The source said, “The police have been
pleading with the family to drop the case, but they (family members) are
yet to take a position on the matter, they want to bury the girl first
before taking a stand on the next point of action.
“Some family members want the police to pay compensation for killing the girl, but the police have not made any offer for now.”
The FCT Police Public Relations Officer,
Doris England, could not be reached for comments as she did not respond
to calls to her phone.
Punch
No comments:
Post a Comment