Abia police command to dismiss happy trigger officer to serve as deterrent

Abia State Police Command of the Nigeria Police has said that Patrick Kanu, a corporal, attached to Eziama Police Station in Aba North Local Government Area, who killed a young man, identified as Ikeokwu Onyemaechi at Ogbor Hill Aba, Wednesday, would be dismissed according to police laws to serve as deterrent to other unruly officers.

Habila Joshak, commissioner of Police, Abia State, who revealed this, while addressing journalists at the Aba Area Command Headquarters, Thursday, described the incident as highly regrettable, stressing that the incident could had been avoided.

Joshak said the incident was something that he would not want to remember, noting that he would do everything possible to keep it behind him and the command, “to ensure that it does not repeat itself.”

Joshak revealed that the culprit had been arrested and was currently going through administrative discipline, after which he would be charged to court.

According to, “The consequences of this administrative discipline can be grave and one of it is dismissal, depending on the weight of the evidence and the nature of the offence.

“Those who commit this kind of crime must pay for it. But one thing that is clear from our administrative investigation is that he does not have any justification for what he did. It is very clear to me that he should consider himself dismissed.

“I want to say that what happened yesterday was highly unfortunate and it is not in the character of Police officers in Abia and we don’t want to have such again in Abia,” he said.

He explained that there is concerted and deliberate effort by the Police high command towards rebuilding the image of the police, which could be attributed to emphasis on training and retraining of officers and men of the police, especially those on patrol, one of which is musketry-handling of small fire arms.

“However, one cannot rule out an unruly one among them, who could forget safety measures in handling small arms”.

To douse tension in the commercial city, the Abia Police Commissioner said he has visited the scene of the incident and has also paid condolences to the family of the deceased.

The deceased, a father of two, was shot dead Wednesday, by Kanu, while attempting to seize his motorcycle at Ogbor Hill, Aba, Abia State.

The deceased, a Port Harcourt-based businessman, and his friend, identified as Okike, who hails from Abala community in Obingwa Local Government Area, were on their way home after depositing the body of Okike’s father at Group Medical Practice mortuary near Azuka Police Division, Ogbor Hill.

According to reports, the killer policeman and his colleagues who were in an ash-coloured Peugeot 504, attempted to seize their motorcycle shortly after they reportedly left the morgue.

However, several explanations by the deceased and his friend to the Police team that they just deposited the corpse of Okike’s father at the mortuary were not heeded.

Thereafter, Kanu, the assailant, allegedly pulled his gun and shot Onyemachi on the forehead.