Mother of the 25 year-year old student, Victor Emmanuel, shot dead on Sunday by a trigger-happy policeman in Bayelsa State, Mrs. Grace Victor, yesterday relieved the gory details of the tragedy.
Pensively, she said that her son’s dream of participating in the on-going admission process to study Law in a Nigerian university was tragically brought to an end by the Nigeria Police.
The? deceased, an indigene of Opubo-Nkoro in Rivers State, had relocated to Bayelsa State in May, 2011, and was a marketer in a family business.
He was shot dead on Sunday by Mobile Policemen after Church service and in the presence of his mother.
Victor told LEADERSHIP that though she was not close to hear the exchange of words between the Mobile Policemen and her son, she was told it had to do with Emmanuel’s comment regarding the police’ demand for N20 bribe from bike men? at a check-point that fateful day.
She continued, “after the close of church service, I came out and boarded a commercial motor bike and, not far from where I took off, I heard gun shots. I was scared and told the bike operator to stop for us to take cover. All of a sudden, I saw my son running and being chased by the men of the police. Their (Police) vans were packed on both sides of the road. And, when I discovered that it was my son they were chasing and about shooting, I ran towards one of the officers close to one of the Vans. I told him please that is my son, he is a believer. By this time they were cocking their guns.
“By the time the officer I approached could signal his colleagues to stop, they were already shooting at my son. I saw him shot with my two eyes, they had no mercy for him at all, they shot him brutally. As he fell while they were shooting him, the tallest of them all still continued shooting at him even as he lay on the ground. My son was holding a Bible when he was shot. I rushed, as a mother, to go and attend to him but they threatened to shoot me too”.
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