Family members of a deceased Legal Practitioner want the Federal government, the Inspector General of Police and the Akwa Ibom State Government to investigate an alleged conspiracy surrounding his death.
Before his demise, Godwin Ikoiwak was a State Prosecutor at the Ministry of Justice in Akwa Ibom State.
Mr Ikoiwak’s Family members, as well as his 2005 (law graduate) classmates from the University of Calabar, made the appeal at a Media Conference in Abuja.
They said the deceased did not die of natural causes as there appeared to be foul play in the events leading up to his death.
Ms Nne Ikoiwak alleged that contrary to claims by the wife of the deceased that he died of asthmatic attack, the late Principal State Counsel had in fact been gruesomely murdered.
According to Ms Ikoiwak, the family had discovered severe bruises and injuries on late Godwin’s body, including a deep cut on his left eye with marks to his legs and hands; an indication, she insisted, that he had been tied up.
She said following the revelation, the family requested for a full autopsy with toxicology where it was revealed that, Godwin been bounded, held down and forced to ingest a very toxic substance, a popular rat poison called Sniper and locally known as Otapiapia.
Miss Ikoiwak stressed that efforts by the family to reconcile the result of the latest autopsy with the earlier report of cause of death as told by late Godwin’s wife and the Chief Medical Director of the Hospital who certified the cause of death as asthmatic attack, had resulted in a full-blown crisis.
Miss Ikoiwak added that the insistence of the family to unravel the cause of death and effect arrest of suspected persons has turned out futile.
The family is therefore appealing to the IGP, the State Governor, and the National Human Rights Commission to look into the matter and bring to justice the perpetrators of the alleged brutal murder of Mr Ikoiwak.
They however stated that they had written two petitions to the police, seeking a proper commencement of the process into finding the cause of death and ensure prosecution of any culprit.
