Nigeria Senate investigates Apo killings in Abuja

The Senate on Tuesday asked its committees on National Security, Intelligence and Judiciary to immediately start investigations into the circumstances that led to the death of eight people in the Apo area of Abuja following an encouter they had with security operatives last week Friday.

Senator Sahabi Yau, representing  Zamfara North, had raised the point of order directing his colleagues’ attention to the controversial incident, which he said, had been generating series of  condemnations from Nigerians.

He therefore sought three prayers – the condemnation of the act by the senate, a one-minute silence for the victims and a thorough investigation of the incident with a view to recommending appropriate punishments for culprits.

However, Senate President David Mark, after listening to the submissions of other senators who commented on the issue, noted that it would be unfair for the Senate to grant the first and second prayers of Yau because doing so, without details of the incident could be prejudicial.

He said, “It will be too hasty to start condemning the act because we don’t have the details of what actually happened. We cannot rely on newspaper reports or rumours from members of the public.

“We condemn any form of extra-judicial killings as well as all forms of terrorism but we cannot condemn the operational procedure employed by the affected security agency because we don’t know what actually happened.

Meanwhile, there was confusion on Tuesday at the Asokoro General Hospital, Abuja as relatives of the victims besieged the hospital.

The relatives lamented that the victims had been neglected as they were not receiving adequate treatment.

A friend of one of the victims, Mallam Isah Moriki from Zamfara State, who spoke on behalf of other victims’ relatives, confirmed this.

He said, “The problem on ground here is that the patients are not being given proper care.

“The bullets have not been removed. As I speak with you, the victims are very hungry because the hospital refused to give them food.

“When they asked of food, they were told that money had finished and they needed to pay more. It was one woman who came and assisted them with N20, 000. No care is being given to them. They only give them injection and tablets like Vitamin C.

Several calls and text message to the Chief Medical Director of Asokoro Hospital, Dr. Ahmadu Abubakar were not replied.