Nigerian Navy officers
Relationship between officers
and men of the Nigerian Navy and their police counterparts in Calabar,
Cross River State is on ice following the killing of a police corporal,
Sunday Agida, by a naval officer, Udo Edet, immediately after the
Nigerian-Burkina Faso match on Sunday.
Edet is currently being detained at
the Cross River State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the
Nigerian Police for allegedly using a dagger that was inside his car to
stab the police corporal. Corpse of the deceased has been deposited in
a mortuary in Calabar pending conclusion of investigation on the matter.
The deceased met his untimely death
along Barracks Road in Calabar, at about 10 p.m. after the Nations Cup
final between Nigeria and Burkina Faso in response to a distressed call
to his station by a lady, whose car the naval man had earlier smashed
and refused to repair as demanded.
THISDAY checks revealed that the road
to his untimely death commenced when the naval officer, who was driving
a Toyota Camry Car collided with that of one Mrs. Bassey resulting in a
heated argument with the woman insisting that the navy officer must pay
damages for denting her car.
Edet felt insulted by the insolence of
the woman whereupon he reportedly called Mrs. Bassey a ‘bloody
civilian’ who can do next to nothing and threatened to create a scene
if she persisted that he repairs her car.
A crowd soon formed with most of those present pleading with him to offer to repair the car since he was at fault.
All the pleas fell on deaf ears as
Edet rather exhibited his military braggadocio threatening to deal with
anyone who dares him. He out rightly ignored the lady and made attempts
to zoom off but was prevented by “area boys” who dominated the crowd.
The street urchins demanded that he
must pay damages to the woman or he will not leave. This left the naval
officer in a dilemma.
Bassey had accused the military man of
reckless driving and decided to call her husband on phone to inform him
of what happened and the insistence of the Edet to get away with it.
The husband wasted no time in informing the police at the Akim Area
Command of the incident and solicited for their intervention so that
Edet would be brought to book.
Without much ado, a detachment of
policemen drove to the scene in a pick up van and invited Edet to their
station to make his statement on the incident. He rather insisted on
rushing to see his family first but was denied the request.
Not too long, the late police corporal
and one of his friends arrived the scene which was in front of his shop
seeking explanation on what happened.
Both Agida, friend and the crowd
appealed to the navy man to follow the lady to the police station so
that the matter could be ironed out but Edet rather got angry and
accused Agida of insulting him and also for interfering in a matter
that he knew nothing about.
While the Area Boys were making
frantic efforts to lynch the naval officer, Agida told Edet not to
attack his friend as he was not involved in the fracas. But in what
turned out to be a transfer of aggression, Edet in a feat of anger
suddenly dashed into his car and brought out a dagger with which he
stabbed the policeman opening a hole in his stomach which saw his
intestines falling out.
When it dawned on him that he has
committed murder, the military man started wailing, “my wife o, My
children o. God help me. What have I done to this man.”
He was immediately arrested by the policemen and taken to the Akim Area Command.
Agida joined the police in 2009, got
married to Mercy with the union blessed two children. She is presently
carrying a two-month old pregnancy.
She appealed to the Inspector General
of Police, Chief of Naval Staff and the Attorney-General of the
Federation (AGF) to wade into matter, lamenting her husband was killed
like a common criminal by a blood thirsty naval officer.-culled from THISDAY
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