In an exclusive chat with the police public relations officer, Andrew Ani Amaka, he told that the late chief attempted bribing the mobile police officers who accosted him on the way and decided to give them bribe of N200,000 and even decided to make it up to N500,000 so that he could be let go having been discovered with a pump action gun.
Aniamaka further said this group of police officers who rejected the N200,000 offered by the late chief also rejected N2million earlier offered to them days by other persons prior to the encounter they had with the deceased chief Lucky Ayomanor.
He said the offer of bribe to the police officers was an indication that something was wrong with the chief, a development which prompted the officers to insist on taking him to the police station for further interrogation on his possession of a pump action gun.
According to him: “He was driving in his jeep from where he was arrested to the police station. In fact, he offered the officers money so that they could forgo the arrest. But they declined the offer.
“It was while they were driving to the police station they noticed he was breathing differently, that is why I was saying could it be he was frightened? Was it that he became nervous? Was it that he already had problem with his health prior to the arrest? The family should know his case history.
But very likely, he may have died of natural cause or it was just a thing waiting to happen. Whatever we are doing, we should not be engaged in sentiments or be ruled by emotions but by facts.
“There have been so many assumptions such as was it that he died out of suffocation? Don’t forget that the vehicle we are talking about is a Volvo, a jeep.
“It’s not like my own motor that you can say has a booth, booth is ruled. So, dying out of suffocation is also ruled out.”
He further said his family members should be willing to speak the truth and know whether he had health issues and should be able to speak out “so that we do not make wrong assumptions.”
On the detention of the four police officers who are involved in the case, Aniamaka gave various reason why an officer or an individual could be detained.
He said: “Now why would anybody be put in custody? The fact remains that an individual whoever could be put in custody for a number of reasons. One of such reasons could be to douse already growing tension.
“If it is alleged that you did something wrong and to calm down the situation, one can decide to have you incarcerated or detained if only to douse that tension. That could be a reason.
“You could for so many reasons have somebody in custody. Now, whether the police chose to have those people in custody or not, it is immaterial. What is important is that the case is under investigation. Autopsy is being carried out by experts and we are awaiting the results.”
He said it is expected that the autopsy will be conducted by pathologists from the family members with those in the hospital while the police may also provide a pathologist who will serve as observer.
He said: “In such situation, what we want is objective inquiry into the nature of death. A number of things have been known to have taken the life of the man.”
He commended the effort of the mobile police who were deployed to the area to curb crime, noting that deployment of the police to the Gana area of Sapele had curb crime in the zone.
He said prior to the deployment of the officers to the area, there were incessant cases of kidnapping and robbery, adding that with the deployment of the officers to the area, crime rate had reduced drastically in Sapele.
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