[Press Release] Suspecting an official conspiracy to mask the real cause of the death of a youngster shot by the police who died as a result of the attack few days afterward, the Cross River State Police Command has been told that the plan by it to conduct an autopsy on 22-year-old Moses Mba, who died after being shot by a police officer attached to the residence of Governor Bassey Otu is absolutely unlawful and totally a hogwash.
HURIWA is also miffed that the Governor of Cross River State Mr. Ben Otu has not sufficiently atoned or demonstrated commensurate remorse over the needless, senseless, and reckless execution of a citizen by police operatives protecting the governor’s official complex.
“What is exactly the crime of this citizen Moses Mba to deserve summary execution without judicial trial? Is it an offence for a citizen to demand to visit the governor whose election into that office is as a result of the exercise of the mandate bestowed on the holder of that office by the voters who as citizens are the owners of the sovereignty of Nigeria?
“How does a totally unarmed young boy posed any sort of threat to the life of the governor to allow for his immediate execution? Is the police unaware that sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from which those who are in public offices derive legitimacy to exercise authority?
“The Cross River State governor should ensure that the killer of this citizen is made to face the full wrath of the law. We say no to these cover up plots by the police.”
The leading civil rights advocacy group HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) which made this observation, is demanding a totally independent autopsy to be carried out without the direction of the police because if that is not done then it is as good as allowing the police to dictate what happens in a matter in which one of their operatives is obviously guilty of unprovoked and premeditated murder.
The Rights group also faulted the Police’s decision to conduct autopsy on the young boy the police killed barely hours after it was alleged that the bereaved family rejected an offer of the paltry sum of N5 million from the police as compensation and final settlement for the wilful murder of their beloved son.
HURIWA recalled that the media reported the Commissioner of Police, Rashid Afegbua, as disclosing that the police has arranged to conduct the autopsy as part of investigations to determine the cause of death and the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
“Yes, shooting was involved, but we need to know what caused the death. Was it the gunshot or something else? We have concluded plans to conduct the autopsy and whatever the outcome will be made public,” Afegbua said.
HURIWA recalled that the victim of the police extrajudicial execution, Moses Mba was reportedly beaten and shot in the leg by security operatives at the governor’s former residence on August 1, after insisting on seeing the governor, claiming he had a message from God for him.
His mother, Mrs Victoria Mba, said he later died on August 9 at the Nigerian Navy Reference Hospital in Calabar from injuries sustained in the incident. She described her son as deeply committed to God’s work since childhood, maintaining that his only intention was to deliver a divine message to the governor.
In a media statement endorsed by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA warned against any cover up in this unfortunate but altogether avoidable murder carried out by the police.
“How does the Cross River police command expect any right thinking person that the plan to conduct an autopsy on the remains of a youngster that the same police intentionally killed would be transparent? We in the organised civil society community in Nigeria are by this media statement asking the Inspector General of Police Mr. Kayode Egbetokun to direct that the trigger happy police operative who shot the boy to stop him from seeing the Cross River State governor should be arrested and investigated for murder.
“The family of the victim of this police murder should be allowed together with the civil society organizations to conduct an independent autopsy with the presence of a police representative so that the entire process wouldn’t be muddied up by the Cross River State Police Command in its attempt to cover up this dastardly crime of murder committed by the police.
“It is very likely that since the police failed to bribe their way out of being subjected to the due process of the law, the police is now gambling with the prospect of conducting an autopsy whose result is already predetermined just so that the police operative responsible for shooting to death of Moses Mba would be left off the hook in a criminal conspiratorial plots by the police”.
“Anything less than an independent autopsy is non-negotiable and absolutely unconstitutional. The police can’t be the judge and the peosecutor in its own case,” HURIWA affirmed.
Signed
Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko,
National Coordinator,
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA). September 8th 2025.
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