The police in Cross River State said an autopsy will be conducted on the remains of the late Moses Mba, a 22-year-old man recently shot by a police operative attached to the residence of Governor Bassey Otu of Cross River.
The Commissioner of Police, Rashid Afegbua, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Calabar on Saturday.
Mr Afegbua said that the autopsy was to ascertain the cause of the death, saying, “Yes, shooting may be involved, but we need to know what caused the death”.
“We have concluded plans to carry out an autopsy. We need to ascertain if he really died of gunshot injury. The outcome will be made public,” he stated.
It would be recalled that Mr Mba was reportedly shot in the leg on 1 August by a police operative attached to Mr Otu’s residence.
Victoria Mba, the victim’s mother, said her son was shot when he visited Mr Otu’s residence and insisted on seeing the governor.
She said that her son died on 9 August at the Naval Reference Hospital, Calabar, following gunshot injuries.
“He was beaten, shot, and left on his own right in front of the governor’s residence. It was an official of the Red Cross Society that rushed him to the hospital.
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“Before his death, he told me and my husband that he only requested to see the governor, and that he had a message for him from God.
“We are calling for justice to be done; nobody has the right to take the life of another person, so justice should be done in this matter,” she said.
In his reaction, The Commissioner for information, Erasmus Ekpang, said that the late Mba was “not mentally balanced”.
“Let it be also known that the place the boy visited is not the governor’s current residence,” he said.