Aderemi Adeoye, the state's commissioner of police, has been petitioned by the family of Miss Chinyere Awuda, the woman who is thought to have been fatally battered in a club house in Awka, Anambra State.
According to reports, Awuda was beaten by clubgoers for removing money that had been sprayed on a celebrant at the Cosmila Hotel. It was said that her body was dumped in an abandoned swimming pool.
The deceased's family, lead by her father Mr. Patrick Awuda, who was represented by Rigota Chambers, claimed that the celebrant, the hotel, and some police officers conspired to conceal his daughter's death.
The investigating police officer of the "B" Division, who was looking into the case, was accused of trying to pressure the family into accepting a settlement without acknowledging that their daughter had been brutally murdered and dumped in the abandoned pool, according to a portion of the petition sent to the commissioner of police.
Awuda allegedly stole from the celebrants, fled the club, slipped into the abandoned pool, and drowned, according to the hotel's allegations. However, the family stated that she was covered in bruises when she was taken out of the pool and that police prevented them from photographing the injuries.
"The inability of the hotel management to provide a comprehensive CCTV video of what happened, both inside the club where the beating started and outside the club where the actual murder occurred, left more questions to be answered and uncovered," the attorneys, speaking on behalf of the family in the petition, stated.
"The suspects, the hotel management, and the investigating officer at the B Division were pressuring the bereaved family members to accept a settlement before the inquiry was over.
So, we respectfully ask that you use your good offices to oversee a careful examination of the crime and the accused.
For the protection of the public's conscience, to seal the aforementioned crime scene until the results of the in-depth inquiry.
To prevent future incidents of this kind of violence, "to further arrest, detain, and prosecute all other suspects, as shown by the CCTV clip already in police custody."