•Police’s claim that he is in ‘protective custody’ is good, but for how long?
The gory tale of a fatal shooting by a seven-year old child and the scary story of his alleged detention for murder by the police, should worry us as a people. The child, Chibuike Oramalu, was reported to have accidently shot 12-year old Oluebube Boniface to death, at Independence Layout, in Enugu, leading to his alleged detention at the New Haven Police Station for over a month. So, while deeply mourning the negligent killing of Oluebube, we are flustered by the alleged action of our police, in allegedly detaining the seven-year-old Chibuike, since May 30.
According to Chibuike’s mother, Nwakaego Oramalu, who works as a housekeeper, her children, Ifeanyichukwu and Chibuike were asked by her employer’s son to clean-up his father’s room. She said: “while Ifeanyichukwu swept the room, Chibuike laid the bed. Chibuike found a gun near the bed where he was working, and he took it to 10-year-old Ifeanyichukwu, who asked him to return it. It was while he was returning the gun that he mistakenly pulled the trigger, releasing a bullet which struck Oluebube Boniface, who was in the next compound on the chest. He died on the spot.”
We consider this story a multiple tragedy, with the 12-year-old Oluebube, whose promising life has been cut short by this benumbing accident, as the primary victim. According to the report also, Mr Edwin Oforma, the employer of Nwakaego, who owned the gun, from which the lethal shooting proceeded, has been on the run. In the petition made against the police by one Olu Omotayo, the police are insisting that the boy will remain in detention until the owner of the gun and his son that gave the instruction to the children to clean the room, turn themselves in to the police.
While Oluebube deserves to be mourned, and his death properly investigated, the unlawful detention of the seven-year-old Chibuike, cannot form part of that process. Unless of course, the police have no regard for the extant laws of our country that define crime and criminal culpability. For the avoidance of doubt, a seven-year-old child cannot be held liable for a criminal act, more so, as in the circumstance.
This is why we are happy that the Enugu State Police Command has refuted the allegation that it was keeping the child in detention but in “protective custody” for his own safety and in the interest of his mother. According to the command, an angry mob had been waiting to unleash jungle justice on him even as they wanted to set Oforma’s house ablaze, which has made the police to be guarding the compound. But things should be done in a way that bad faith would not be suspected.
Nwakaego’s lawyer’s claim that the police refused to release the boy to his mother on bail even after asking her to come for him because she is a woman, is not good enough. We do not know of any law that says a woman cannot take a suspect on bail.
We agree that it is reasonable to seek out the alleged owner of the gun for interrogation. Indeed, if the report of what happened is true, then the child deserves to be attended to by medical experts, to help him recover from the trauma of causing the death of another child.
All said, it is necessary to highlight the challenges of insecurity facing our society, which could make a man keep a gun very handy, such that a child can easily lay his hand on it. Unless the ownership of the firearm is illegal, or that it had been used unlawfully in the past, it is also strange that the alleged owner and his son would abandon their residence for an act they are not directly responsible for.
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