The father of late Shooting Stars defender Izu Joseph, who was shot and killed by Nigeria security forces on Sunday night, says he wants justice for his son and has called for an end to extra judicial killing in the country.
Martin Izurube, speaking from his home in Port Harcourt, told KweséSports that his son was murdered by an officer of the Joint Task Force, a combined security service set up to fight militants in the Niger Delta region.
Describing the circumstances of his son’s death, Izurube said his son went to visit his family in the village at the end of the football season.
“He went to the jetty to take his bath, a common place where villagers normally go to swim,” Izurube tells KweséSports. “As he was bathing, he heard series of gunshots. Sporadic shooting. Everybody was scampering for safety and so he too started trying to find his way.
“As he was coming up, he met one of the soldiers, who shot him. After he shot him, my son produced his ID card and gave it to the soldier saying: ‘I’m not a criminal, see my ID card. I am a footballer, I just finished the season, I’m from Ibadan.’”
“The soldier shot him a second time. They took his phone and started taking a video of him. Then they pushed him into the water. He started struggling in the water. They didn’t allow anybody to go near him to save him.
“But he was strong, so he swam to the shore. Still, they left him there. It was then that some boys from the village got the courage to go and pick him up.
“By then he had lost a lot of blood. So they now took him to a nearby clinic to remove the bullets. But they could not. The doctor told them he would not make it.
“Not giving up hope, they took him to the hospital in the Bayelsa State capital, Yenagoa, but before they could do anything, he gave up.”
Izurube says his son was treated like a criminal, but stressed the point that even criminals have rights.
“What I want to know is, what is his crime? And if he is really a criminal, all this time he has been at Ibadan, what was his offence?
“Why did they not carry him away after seeing the criminal to make a case and produce the evidence? They dumped this boy there. They took his purse and took his ID card.
“Nigeria has to curb extra judicial killing. Police and soldiers have no right to shoot indiscriminately. Many people have been dying innocently in Nigeria because police fabricate stories against them.
“This is a great loss for us. Losing him means there is a big gap in our lives. The son should bury the father, not the other way round.”
Father of Slain Footballer Wants Justice
