ALUU 4: How A Dog Was Used To Torture Them Before They Were Set Ablaze

The suspects being led out side the court yesterday

Less than a year ago, they were brutally murdered and more questions than answers rent the air, everywhere. Why? Why? Why? We all asked…and are still asking as day after day brought fresh reports on the promising young men cut in their prime by the Aluu community.

Yesterday, at the resumed hearing in the killings of the ALUU four, Mr. Raphael Ezechi, a Deputy Superintendent of Police of the State Criminal Investigative Department told the Rivers
State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, that a dog was used to torture the students before they were set on fire.

Mr. Ezechi led in evidence by the Solicitor-General of Rivers, Mr. Rufus Godwins, said he took photographs of the deceased and a dog, said to have been used to torture the students, adding that information was also gathered from the Internet which were recorded.

The defence counsel, however, objected to the prosecution’s move to tender the photo evidence as exhibits, contending that the police officer was not the maker of the said documents and no proper foundation had been laid for the admissibility of the photographs, and thereby urged the court to reject same.

Responding, Mr. Godwins, the prosecution counsel said that the foundation was laid from records of proceedings by the court and urged the dismissal of the objection, which he described as misconceived by the defence.

It will be recalled that four University of Port Harcourt students, Ugonna, Chidiaka, Tekena and Lloyd (all in their early 20s) were in October, 2012 taken before the Aluu community leaders who passed judgment on them, after which they were tortured and burnt to death by residents of Omuokiri in Aluu community, Rivers State in hazy circumstances.

Our pains may have dulled, and we may have run out of words of consolation for the victims’ families who find their loss a harder pill to swallow because theirs was a public pain, a much published pain, but deep down, I sincerely pray they find the justice they deserve even as the victims’ souls continue to rest in peace.