The Police has clarified why it is reinstating a police officer said to have given the order for the murder of six Igbo traders many years ago.

The Police Service Commission has explained why it reinstated a deputy commissioner of police, Danjuma Ibrahim who gave the order for the killing of six Igbo traders on June 7, 2005, in Apo township, a satellite settlement at the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja.

The commission said it is following court order since the officer involved had been acquitted of the felony charge against him by a court.

It would be recalled that six Igbo traders were brutally murdered after Ibrahim had ordered his officers to shoot them to death, according to police witnesses. The police had claimed that the victims, aged between 21 and 25 years, were members of a robbery gang that had shot at the officers at a checkpoint.

A judicial panel of inquiry set up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo stated that the victims were at a nightclub located at Gimbiya Street, Area 11, in Abuja that night of June 7, 2005, when they had a face-off with Ibrahim after the only female among the victims, rejected Ibrahim’s romantic advances.

Angered by what had happened, Ibrahim and his men lay ambush for the six victims before ordering his men to shoot them to death. The officers accused of the killings and eight other police witnesses testified before the panel of inquiry that Ibrahim, the Deputy Commissioner of Police and the most senior of the accused, had ordered the killings.

Curiously, in March 2017, Danjuma was freed by a judge who sat on the case. The police has issued a memo for his reinstatement and will go ahead to pay him arrears of his salary dating back to June 18, 2005.

Speaking in a statement on Danjuma’s reinstatement, on Tuesday spokesman of PSC, Ikechukwu Ani, explained that the trial Judge found the DCP who was the first accused person, not guilty and accordingly discharged and acquitted him while Emmanuel and Acheneje were sentenced to death.

It said, “After the judgement, Ibrahim appealed to the commission requesting his reinstatement, restoration, payment of arrears of salary, benefits and other entitlements in line with the judgement of the High Court of Federal Capital Territory Abuja delivered on March, 9, 2017.”

The commission noted that the Public Service Rules provided that an officer acquitted of a criminal offence “ shall not be penalised for any charge of which he/she has been acquitted, (PSR 030411(b)).”

The PSC also noted that since the DCP had not been found guilty of the charge that led to his suspension, the provision of PSR 030404 (iv) would apply, adding that it would continue to respect the rule of law and obey judgments of ‘competent courts of justice.’