Unmask Joy Odama’s Killers Now – CRHA Tells IGP, Security Agencies
BY ARCHIBONG EYO, CALABAR – The Cross River State House of Assembly (CRSHA) has joined the growing legion of voices demanding justice against the killers of Miss Joy Odama, a year-two Mass Communication student of the Cross River State University of Technology, Calabar.
Already, Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon John Gaul Lebo, who captured the State lawmakers’ touchy mood over the ugly incident, has assured the public and Cross Riverians that the killers of Miss Odama will not go unpunished and must be brought to book for their dastardly act.
Speaker Lebo’s pledge came on the heels of a resolution by the House, following a motion of urgent public interest brought before it by member representing Yala 1 State Constituency, Hon. Regina Anyogo.
Anyogo had alerted the House that Miss Odama was gruesomely murdered in the house of one Alhaji Usman Adamu in December 2016, while on holidays with her parents in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital City.
The motion also alleged that a Police DPO in Abuja, who admitted knowledge of the case before Joy’s mother and other relations arrived his office, had advised Joy’s parents to accept an offer of N400,000 (Four hundred thousand Naira) from the said Alhaji Adamu, a so-called philanthropist and close the case against him.
In an emotionally charged atmosphere, the lawmakers urged the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to urgently institute an investigative panel to examine and determine the circumstances surrounding the death of Miss Odama.
The House further charged the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice as well as the Cross River State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice to take appropriate legal steps to unravel the cause of Joy’s mysterious death.
The Legislators also called on the Department of State Services (DSS), Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Human Rights activists and women lawyers among other well-meaning groups and individuals to intervene in the matter and ensure justice for the family of late Joy, an indigene of Yala Local Government Area of Cross River State.
In a related development, the Police Force Headquarters in Abuja may have responded to public outcry trailing the mysterious death of the undergraduate by declaring the said Alhaji Usman Adamu wanted.
Reports quotes the Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), CSP Jimoh Moshood as saying that the police were on the trail of Alhaji Adamu has since been on the run because he has a case to answer of Joy’s strange death.
According to the media report, the Police has also queried, removed and transferred the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Karmo, where the alleged murder took. Sources hinted that the officer is accused of ‘professional misconduct’ over the girl’s death.
The report further stated that three girls were on a visit to the fleeing Alhaji’s house only for two of them to be taken unconscious to an unnamed hospital with the late Joy reported dead on arrival. It is also reported that the police is still awaiting the result of an autopsy ordered on late Joy.
