The police have pleaded with the
family of Lucy Ukpong, a sales girl that was shot dead by policemen from the
FCT Police Command, for an amicable settlement of the matter.
It was gathered that the parents of
the deceased and other relations had met with some police officers over the
killing of the girl, but the meeting was not conclusive on how the matter
should be settled.
Our correspondent learnt that the
family were considering settling the matter through judicial process or payment
of compensation by the police.
This revelation came just just
as the family had concluded arrangements to collect Lucy’s remains from Garki
Hospital on Friday (today) for burial in Akwa Ibom State on Saturday.
Lucy, a sales girl at a photography
shop in Apo, Abuja was hit in the chest by bullets allegedly fired by policemen
from the FCT Special Anti-robbery Squad on October 12. Three others sustained
gunshot wounds during the incident.
The 20-year-old girl was inside the
shop when she was killed by policemen who had come to enforce the order on
demolition of illegal structures by officials of development control
department. The deceased had only spent a month on her job before the incident.
Findings however indicated that the
policemen were on an illegal duty as the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council
said they were not authorised to enforce any demolition exercise during the
period.
The residents of the area had
resisted moves to carry out the demolition exercise, leading to a confrontation
and sporadic gunshots by the policemen.
A family source told our
correspondent on Thursday that the Federal Capital Territory Administration
gave the family N1.8m for funeral expenses while the FCT Police Command
provided coffin, ambulance and what it called logistics support to the family.
The source stated that the police
were begging Lucy’s family for an amicable settlement of the matter, though the
family members were yet to accept their entreaties.
The source said, “The police have
been pleading with the family to drop the case, but they (family members) are
yet to take a position on the matter, they want to bury the girl first before
taking a stand on the next point of action.
“Some family members want the police
to pay compensation for killing the girl, but the police have not made any
offer for now.”
The FCT Police Public Relations
Officer, Doris England, could not be reached for comments as she did not
respond to calls to her phone.
