The Nigerian Police, Anambra State Command, have insisted that Miss Chinyere Awuda, a lady clubber who was found dead in an abandoned swimming pool in Cosmila hotel in Awka two weeks ago got drowned, and not beaten to death.
Citing an autopsy report, a press release by the spokesperson of Anambra State Police Command, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, confirmed that the lady drowned.Meanwhile, there had been concerns over the death of Awuda. She was said to have gone clubbing at Cosmila Hotel, Awka, where she was purportedly accused of pilfering money being sprayed on a celebrant, leading to her being beaten to death and dumped in an abandoned swimming pool.
But the hotel management in their explanation insisted that she stole money from the club, and ran out and hid in a dark area, where she mistakenly fell into the abandoned swimming pool and drowned.
However, Police in a press release on Friday said: “In the course of the Police investigation, the celebrant was arrested for questioning while the corpse was recovered and deposited at the morgue for autopsy.“Contrary to claims that the deceased was beaten to death, the pathologist found no sign of trauma on the body. The autopsy report indicated that drowning was the cause of death.
“This finding was in tandem with claims that the lady ran away when accosted and every effort made to find her that night was futile. It would appear that she fell into the abandoned swimming pool and drowned,” Police statement revealed.Ikenga said the commissioner of Police, Anambra State Command, CP Aderemi Adeoye, has directed that the pathologist’s report be sent to the Attorney General for vetting and legal advice.
In a swift response, the family of the late miss Chinyere Awuda has challenged the autopsy report published by the state Police Command contending that their daughter did not die of drowning.Counsel to the family, Barrister Ezieafa Charisma, who spoke to reporters, said the autopsy report is suspicious as was made public by the Police, adding that the claim that Chinyere Awuda died of drowning is not a finality to the case.
“Yes, I was there during the autopsy and I thank the pathologists that carried out the job but then I challenge the police to release the comprehensive and well detailed report of that autopsy.“There are other things because in the course of the autopsy, the pathologists showed that there some injury on her lib and some blood stains on her limb.“The question to the police is that Chinyere drowned. Will that solve the case of murder, a case of that magnitude? Can an unconscious person drown and what led to her drowning?
“Because from the onset, we had dragged the police into the investigation because they have been reluctant in this matter from the B Division where they started talking about settlement and I wonder why the Police should be the one to talk about settlement”“Chinyere was in the club, there is evidence that she was beaten, there evidences that there was unrest in the club. There is evidence that some people pursued her when she ran out of the club.”
“There was evidences that two persons was in her pursuit and there were evidences that she was trying to hide and there were evidences that two persons pursued her to where she went to hide and later there were evidences that the two persons came out from where Chinyere was hiding without Chinyere”
“In fact, I challenged the police and the management of the hotel to make Public the CCTV footage of what happened at the hotel and people should be made to see what happened,” he said.
Charisma further announced that despite the fact that Chinyere Awuda is dead, the matter would continue, adding that the family is putting up a petition to the Inspector General of Police over the police report and how the investigation was carried out by the Police Command.