In an emotional and heart breaking tale, Reuben explained how his
brother was relaxing around his family compound in his hometown, Okarki -
a boundary between Rivers and Bayelsa states, when officers from JTF in
pursuant of criminals shot him on his leg at first, and even though he
pleaded with the JTF officers that he wasn't a criminal and showed them
his club ID card to buttress his claim, they still shot him again and
then dragged his body to a waterfront, covering his blood trail with
sand in the process.
According to Reuben, who spoke exclusively with Linda Ikeji's Blog,
if his brother was really a cultist or with cultists as the JTF
military claim, what time will he have to play football professionally?
Wwhy was he shot twice even after he identified himself with his ID
card? Why is the whole community who see Izu Joseph as a football
hero/icon mourning his death? Why did they drag his lifeless body to the
stream after going through his phone and confirming he was really a
footballer? Why did they cover his blood stains and blood trail with
sand? Why has the Ijaw Youth Council called the Nigerian military's 'he
was in a cultist den/shrine' claims as watery, provocative and
insensitive? Why didn't the JTF tell the media that they went to a
'confidence building' before shooting him?
'They
(JTF) are bringing another side of the story to cover up for what they
have done, for the crime they have done' Izu Reuben told LIB.
'Actually
it happened on Sunday last week, my bro was supposed to leave the next
day. He had met kids in our village, given out gifts,one or two things,
watched footballers play local football and even shared forms to three
players to go for trials at Nigerian clubs'
'Just to encourage them''
'After
that he went to swim in the river close to our house, and he started
hearing sporadic gunshots all over the place' 'People were running
everywhere'
'He ran out of the river to look for a place to hide as he saw some people running towards him also.'
'One of the people who sustained bullet wounds from JTF ran into the river all in the name of safety and died there'
'But
that of my brother when he noticed the running and shooting, he decided
to run to a direction near our house which his mind told him to run to,
never knowing that he was actually running into direction of two of the
JTF guys, so he was running into their direction, saw them holding guns
and changed his direction to run opposite'
'Then
one soldier shot him at the leg, when they shot him he was just
shouting and screaming, begging them not to kill him and brought out his
NPFL ID card to show them that he was a footballer'
''
I was in the river and heard a gun shot and his screams, i ran towards
where he was shot and was watching it all, while taking cover'
''He
was screaming telling a soldier he's a footballer from 3SC, then the
second soldier came, you know this soldiers that are not learned, the
first soldier had already shot him and was listening to his pleas and
trying to confirm if he was really a footballer and the second soldier
just came and angrily shot him the second time between his waist and
ribs. They killed him!' Reuben said agonizingly to LIB.
''It was after going through his phone, they checked it and videos and pictures proved he was a professional footballer'
'His actions, words, and phone proved to them he was really a footballer'
'They
then took his wallet and phone and in order to 'cover up for what they
had done they took his body and threw in the river''
'And used sand to cover up the blood traces' That was how they killed my brother'
That was how they killed my brother, there is no two ways about it''
'There
is an AIT video when you watch it you will see how the correspondent
interviewed our family, interviewed the youth president, went to the
stream interviewed the villagers.
'I guess from what they are claiming...... wow!'
'We are all in this country'
'If
you kill a notorious gang or cultist or robber, i think the villagers
will come out and jubilate and thank the military, but in this case they
were all condemning the killing, saying they killed a wrong person'
Villagers are sad'
'It's painful and sad to be talking about how they killed my bro, to be talking about him this way'
Izu
Reuben also revealed that contrary to Military reports, the soldiers
went to a 'confidence building' where they hyped themselves up and
prepared to kill as much people as possible, so sparing the Izu Joseph's
life even though he begged them not to kill him, wouldn't have upped
their 'confidence'
'Did you have the audio of the military report?'
'They went on a confidence building' 'Do you know what that means?'
I
found out the meaning and what that means is that they were briefed
that where they were going to they were going to be resisted' 'It's just
like you are going to a militant camp, they are armed directly to
resist you'
So they went to the confidence building' so when
you attack and they resist and finally you conquer it'll boost your
confidence' That is the meaning of the confidence building
If you can overpower this people when they show their head, then it'll boost you'
'Now
they say they went on such a confidence building in my village and they
went to a cult shrine, if you listen to all the media platforms even
the commissioner for youth Rivers State was in the house this week'
'
He said for what he knows there is no shrine, other than the
traditional shrine that is in Okarki but then normally young man even if
there isa notorious person that has been terrorizing, i think the law
permits that if the person surrenders even if at that time you have
incapacitated him, by one bullet in the leg, that you should not kill
him'
'If they had really known he was a Nigerian footballer
they would have taken him alive and not kill him, 'But because they knew
him being alive will be bad news for them because he'll be able to
talk, thy killed him''
'It's
a sad news that our military can be like that even in the world, laws
of military engagement, if your enemy surrenders and is incapacitated
and cannot harm you and raises up the white flag, if you kill him then
it's genocide, its a crime, a war crime, an offence!'
What you do is you take him hostage, take him as a prisoner of war but in this case its not even war.'
'You came to arrest a group of criminals' 'We are not kicking against the intelligence reports they must have heard
When
they came in the course of going after the right persons killed an
innocent person they should just come out and open up the truth, own up
for their crime'
'How can a professional
footballer like my brother, someone who has been in Ibadan all these
while playing football going from one state to the other, when was he
perpetrating his cultist activities with this group of persons?'
'Everything the JTF has said has been a lie' 'We seek justice'' Reuben concluded in agony to LIB.
Watch the video from the 'broken' Izu Reuben below....
SOURCE:LIB
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