***We’ve given police time to make public his name
One week after her assassination, the identity of the police officer who carried out the killing of Anita Akapson, niece of a former Minister of Finance, Senator Nenadi Usman, has been revealed.
The culprit is said to be the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Surveillance at the Gwarinpa Police Division, Abuja and just returned from medical treatment from abroad.
Anita Akapson, thought to be Nenadi’s daughter because she virtually brought her up, was gunned down by a police surveillrance team from the Gwarinpa police station in Abuja last Saturday.
Senator Nenadi Usman, a prominent member of opposition party Peoples Democratic Patty (PDP), was one of those persons who supervised the recent primaries held in Port Harcourt where Alhaji Atiku Abubakar emerged as the PDP presidential candidate for the 2019 general election.
Speaking on the identity of the police officer, the family lawyer, Dr. Kayode Ajulo, said they have given the police time to make public the name of the officer in question, failing which they will be compelled to do so.
Although Anita has been buried in Southern Kaduna, close friends of Senator Nenadi Usman, have engaged the services of private investigators from the United Kingdom to unravel the mysteries surrounding the assassination of her niece.
Late Anita was buried on Friday at her hometown in Garaje Kagoro, Southern Kaduna, amidst wailing and curses after a Christian wake-keep at Senator Nenadi’s Asokoro residence.
A highly placed source in the family said the death of Anita was not just a routine case of mistaken identity, believing that there was more to it.
The source said, “I can tell you that we are not letting this killing to be just about any killing and for this reason we have engaged a private investigator from the U.K to try and unravel what really happened.
“While we do not wish to point accusing fingers at any particular person or persons, the general feeling is that this shooting that led to the death of Senator Nenadi Usman’s niece has political undertone. Perhaps, they were waiting for Senator Nenadi (former Minister of Finance) but unfortunately it was Anita that drove out of the compound.”
Ajulo, had on Tuesday called on the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to engage a private prosecutor to handle the prosecution of those involved in the fatal shooting of the deceased, while making the identity of the officer who pulled the trigger public.
He said, “For a transparent judicial process, the police authorities ought to make the identities of the policemen known as to avoid a situation where they will ‘miraculously’ escape from detention.
“We also demand for an independent prosecutor to handle the prosecution of the officers. History has shown that the police can go to any length to protect their own, and this may not be different because till date, nothing substantial has been done in the prosecution of the officer that killed Ms. Linda Angela Igwetu, the NYSC member that was killed in July this year,” Ajulo had said at a press briefing.
When contacted on the contracting of a foreign investigator on the matter, Ajulo said he had nothing to say, but stressed that everything possible that can be done to unravel the killing of Anita Akapson would be done.
“I cannot exactly say if a private investigator has been invited to look into the circumstances surrounding the murder of the late Anita, but what I can tell you is that everything is on the table to get to the bottom of the crime”, he stressed.