Aluu 4: Dog Was Used To Torture Victims – Policeman....

A police officer, Mr. Raphael Ezechi, told a Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, at the returned to hearing in the killings of four University of Port Harcourt, UNIPORT, students in October 2012 in Omuokiri, Aluu area, that a dog was used to torture the students before they were lynched.

Mr. Ezechi of the State Criminal Investigative Department and a Deputy Superintendent of Police, led in evidence by the Solicitor-General of Rivers, Mr. Rufus Godwins, revealed that “a team of policemen from Isiokpo Division was dispatched to the scene of the incident to rescue the students but due to the distance, the students were set ablaze before the arrival of the police.”

The witness, claimed he took photos of the dead and a dog, pointed out to have been used to torture the students, including that details were likewise gathered from the Internet which were recorded.

The defense counsel, however, challenged the prosecution’s move to tender the picture evidence as exhibits, contending that the police officer was not the producer of the said records.

The defense however said that no proper foundation had been laid for the admissibility of the pictures, urging the court to decline same.

Responding, Mr. Godwins, the prosecutor counsel said that the foundation was set from records of proceedings by the court and recommended the dismissal of the objection, which he described as mistaken by the defence.