Apo Six

2005

Apo, Abuja

On the night of June 7, 2005, six friends were in a car, heading home from a party. A few hours earlier, five of them left their shops in Apo market where they sold car spare parts. Their friend–the girlfriend of one of the men–was in town, so they decided to go have some fun. “Make una come back on time o,” Edwin Meniru, Chinedu’s brother warned as they entered a car. But they did not return on time, they did not return at all because, on their way home, they were murdered by a group of policemen allegedly led by the then Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Ibrahim Danjuma.

The initial claims that they were robbers were dismissed by a panel of inquiry. Chinedu Meniru, Augustina Arebu, Ifeanyi Ozor, Anthony Nwokike, Paulinus Ogbonna and Ekene Isaac Mgbe, all in their twenties, died that night and in the early hours of the next day.

After the shootings, the process of getting back their bodies devolved into a disheartening affair. The police already dug graves in Apo cemetery and were ready to bury them early hours of the following morning. It was more than three months that their remains were exhumed and laid to rest by their family members. 

Ibrahim Danjuma was suspended in 2005. In 2017, the FCT High Court presiding judge, Ishaq Bello passed a judgment: Two of the accused policemen were to be executed but there was no evidence to convict Danjuma. In November that year, it was pronounced that Danjuma would be reinstated and paid the backlog of his salary dating back to June 2005. In March 2018, he was acquitted and made the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG).

Accused police officers: Danjuma Ibrahim, Fausat Azeez Oduwole, Bethram Onuoha, Okwuonu Allwell, Nonyerem Ejike Akubuike, Barakiya Yusuf and Onuorah Emmanuel