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The police
constable, Christopher Obano, who allegedly shot into a moving bus
conveying some butchers to a slaughter house in Umuahia, Abia State,
killing one and wounding several others last Tuesday, has been
dismissed from the Nigeria Police Force.

Mr. Obano, who was
dismissed from the force after being found guilty in an Orderly Room
trial for contravening the rules of engagement in the police force, was
also arraigned before an Umuahia Chief Magistrate Court on murder
charges at the weekend.

Dismissed and arraigned

Speaking to newsmen
at the court premises before the arraignment, the officer in charge of
legal matters in the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID),
Joseph Micloth, said that at the end of both criminal and internal
investigation, the Orderly Room found the constable guilty and
dismissed him from the Force.

Mr. Obano appeared in civilian attire.

He said Mr. Obano,
who was on special posting to Abia state from the Bornu State command,
went outside the rules by shooting into the vehicle without an order
from his superior officer at the duty post.

The ACP, who said
that Mr. Obano acted recklessly by shooting into the bus, explained
that he opened fire on the bus after hearing a shout from men of the
Federal Road Safety Commission behind them to stop the approaching
vehicle, when it is driver refused to stop.

Temporary reprieve

Mr Obano, a father
of three who looked sober, said he shot at the vehicle after it refused
to stop at the check point, having brushed two other mobile policemen
at the post as the driver sped off.

“I feel bad over
what had happened. I advise drivers to stop any time they are asked to
do so at the checkpoint and my colleagues not to shoot whenever they
ask any motorist to stop and he refuses,” he said.

But when the matter
came up for hearing, the chief magistrate, Isreal Nwulu, declined
jurisdiction over the murder case and ordered that the case-file be
transferred to the state Director for Public Prosecution for vetting
and filing at the High Court.

Mr. Nwulu also ordered that Mr. Obano be remanded in the Federal Prisons till April 9, 2009.

In the one count
charge of murder, charge No U/183 C2010, Christopher Obano was said to
have committed an offence punishable under section319 (1) of the
criminal code section 77 Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1990
as applicable to Abia State.

No plea was taken and no bail granted.