A’Ibom Natives Seal NNPC Facility Over Death Of Kinsman
3 min read
Edith CHUKU
Aggrieved by the unfortunate death of 23 year old Asher Christopher Dan, natives of Akwa Ibom State stormed the Nigeria National Petroleum Company NNPC facility in Port Harcourt to demand justice.
The protesters with placards with inscription such as; “who killed Asher Dan” “his family are in pain” “justice for Asher” “he was a twin”, sealed the NNPC gate with native palmfront and picture of their late kinsmen.
Recall that TNN reported that on Tuesday, a 23 year old Asher Christopher Dan died inside the premises of Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Moscow road, Rivers State, in an unclear circumstance.
Defying the heavy downpour the protesters first matched to the gate of Rivers State Police Command headquarters at Moscow, where the family, representatives of the group were invited for a meeting with top senior Police officers.
Our correspondent gathered that after the group met with the ranking Police officers, the protesters were told that the matter has been transferred to State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department(SCIID).
The protesters later went to the NNPC headquarters where they sealed the gates with native palmfront and the picture of the deceased placed at the gates before leaving to State CIiD.
Our correspondent who monitored the protest disclosed that no official of the company came out to address the protesters.
In an interview with Journalists, the Event Coordinator of the Akwa Ibom community in Rivers State, Mr. King Albert, explained that, “regarding to this subject matter, our boy Asher Dan Christopher came to work on the 20th of this month(August) only for us to get information that an incident occured as at 10am in the morning, we got an information by 4pm that the young man fell from this upstair, this storey building and died.
“But the same people are telling us that they were not there present when the incident happened, we saw the clothes of this young man at the 4th floor while they are telling us that he fell from the 8th floor.
“Now, this people in question uptill date seize the corpse of the young man, refusing the family and the entire community of the Akwa/Ibom people to see the corpse of this young man.
“So we are calling on the Commissioner of Police, the Rivers state Government, all respected individuals of this state to come into this matter because it is a matter of Akwa Ibom state and Rivers State.
“And is very important because the Akwa Ibom State government is aware of this and they will definitely come into this matter.
“We need justice, we need an autopsy, we need to see the corpse of this young man because they are telling us they will not allow us access to the corpse of this young man for 14 days so that they we have access to do whatever they want to do. We need justice for Asher Christopher Dan.”
Meanwhile, the spokesperson for the Rivers State Police command, Grace Iringe-Koko has confirmed the incident, adding that investigation is ongoing.
