Godgift was reportedly shot dead on 22 October 2016 alongside one Anayo while another adult male sustained gunshot wounds during a crossfire between the SARS team and a gang of suspected cultists in the Ekeki area of Yenagoa.
Aggrieved youths of Epie-Atissa Kingdom in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State on Wednesday peacefully protested the alleged killing of a four-year-old boy, Godgift Odoki, by members of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria Police Force.
It will be recalled that another victim, a 7-year-old son of a Federal Road Safety Corps official, was killed by police and buried last weekend amidst tears.
Godgift was reportedly shot dead on 22 October 2016 alongside one Anayo while another adult male sustained gunshot wounds during a crossfire between the SARS team and a gang of suspected cultists in the Ekeki area of Yenagoa.
The youths, who protested under the aegis of the Oguan Youth Congress, displayed placards with various inscriptions like "We Need Justice for Godgift," "Oguan Youth Demand Justice," "Justice in Nigeria Through Police Is Expensive," among others.
They marched to the State House of Assembly Complex and the Government House, both located along the Mbiama-Yenagoa Road in the State capital, to register their grievance.
President of the youth group, Ken Godswill, said the two police sergeants who had been fingered in the shooting of the little boy and other victims should be prosecuted and punished accordingly.
"We are demanding justice. All we are saying is that justice should be done. SARS should be brought to book," he said.
At the State House of Assembly Complex, the angry youths were received by Chief Whip Tonye Isenah and Bernard Kenebai, the House Committee Chairman on Security.
The two lawmakers commended the youths for a non-violent protest, noting that the House was "upset by the killing incident."
Mr. Isenah and Mr. Kenebai said the House was also aware of some illegal police operations, especially arrest-for-bail, in which victims were made to cough out huge sums of money to free themselves.
They assured the youths that the House would address the incident adequately and also "take it up with the police," adding that the killing of the little boy was a serious matter.
Receiving the protesters at the gate of the Government House, Governor Seriake Dickson's Special Adviser on Security Matters, Boma Spero-Jack, said, "no State government will condone the killing of innocent persons."
Mr. Spero-Jack, an indigene of Atissa who addressed the demonstrators in their dialect, said the government would also need the collaboration of the public to succeed in the effort to curb violence, criminality, and insecurity in the State.
He stated that the government was on top of the matter and that "the policemen involved in the incident are being questioned."
