The family of a Police corporal Stanley Etaga, who was slain during the #EndSARs protests in Ughelli, Delta state, have reached out to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa for assistance.
A rights group, Conference for the Actualization of Human Rights (CAHR), who spoke on behalf of the family, disclosed this in Warri, Delta state.
The group demanded that late Etaga be declared the “hero of the Nigeria Police Reform, 2020 at least in Delta state” and a N30 million compensation be paid to the family.
Other demands are scholarships for the late officer’s four children to university level and employment within the state civil service for his widow.
National adviser of the group, Comrade Edewor Egedegbe told newsmen that efforts to get the Delta State Government to offer the necessary aid, like its Lagos, Anambra, and Rivers counterparts, have been unsuccessful.
A letter which was addressed to the governor by the group on behalf of the family described late Etaga’s case as “sheer murder”.
The letter was signed by Egedegbe and the national secretary, Comr. Atiku Sunday and made available to newsmen.
Corporal Stanley Etaga, with force number 504636, served under the Delta State Police Command, ‘A’ Division, Ughelli.
The Urhobo-born native of Assah, Ewu, Ughelli South joined the Police Force on October 17, 2011, and was promoted to the rank of Sergeant seven days after his death on October 8, 2020.
“He was mobbed to death in Ughelli by professed protesters, he was deployed to protect which was the reason he did not pull the trigger, even when it was obvious he was going to die,” the letter stated.
The rights group, however, berated the state government for keeping mum, adding that it is a “deliberate insensitivity to the plight of a citizen”.
Parts of the letter read, “the family has through our office petitioned the state panel on police brutality and extortion whereupon the panel decline jurisdiction on the ground the petition to enforce the right of the slain police officer is outside the scope of the committee/panel.
“To this end, therefore, we call on the Delta state government to treat this case as a special case by reaching out to the family of the late Sgt. Stanley Etaga to assuage their pains in damages as her counterpart states of Lagos, Anambra, Rivers, and others have demonstrated or on the alternative extend the scope of the panel to accommodate cases of murder involving Police officers.
“Be reminded that by fiat, the Lagos State government paid thirty million nairas each to deceased policemen who didn’t even hail from the state, and in Delta State, a Nigerian Police officer of Delta State origin was killed and Your Excellency is silent denying his family the needed attention.”
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