Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
On April 26, 2026, a 28-year‑old aspiring musician named Oghenemine Million Ogidi, known as Mene, was shot dead in broad daylight at a motor park in Effurun, Delta State. His hands were tied behind his back. He was pleading for his life, begging the officer holding the rifle to spare him. The officer fired anyway. The first shot did not kill him, and the officer took the bound, bleeding man to the police station and shot him again. The victim died hours later. The officer was Assistant Superintendent of Police Nuhu Usman, a man also known by the chilling local alias Ogbegbe, a term loosely translated as gunslinger. In the days that followed, a devastating pattern emerged. ASP Usman had been reported to the highest authorities in the land not once but years earlier, by a serving member of the House of Representatives, Nnamdi Ezechi. The lawmaker had presented a formal petition against Usman on the floor of the House, detailing a litany of abuses, including harassment, illegal arrests, and extortion, targeting his constituents in the Kwale community of Ndokwa/Ukwuani Federal Constituency. The House of Representatives ordered a probe. The committee was told to investigate. And then, nothing happened. The officer was not dismissed. He was not prosecuted. He was not even transferred out of reach of his victims. He simply continued to serve, and with each passing year, his violence escalated until, on a Sunday afternoon in Effurun, with cameras rolling, he executed a restrained citizen in cold blood. This is the story of a killer whom the system knew about and did nothing to stop.
The House of Representatives petition was submitted in September 2023. The lead petitioner, a resident named Victor Ezechi, had been brutalised by ASP Usman and his team, who stormed his home without a warrant, beat him, ransacked his house, and arrested him for an unknown offence. In the petition read on the floor of the House by the member representing Ndokwa/Ukwuani Federal Constituency, Honourable Nnamdi Ezechi, the community alleged that Usman, who served under the Rapid Response Squad at Kwale, had been harassing young boys and extorting money from residents, boasting that he represented SARS in the community and had the protection of his superiors. The petition stated, "His ungodly activities came to an unbearable state on the 24th day of September, at about 2:00 pm, when he moved without provocation against the immediate elder brother of Honourable Nnamdi Ezechi," adding that "most young men within the Kwale and environs now live in fear of death and daily attacks." Speaker Tajudeen Abbas referred the matter to the Committee on Public Petitions for legislative action. That committee was tasked with investigating Usman, hearing witnesses, and recommending sanctions. The investigation was ordered in September 2023. By the time Mene Ogidi was killed in April 2026, nearly two and a half years had passed. No sanctions had been imposed. No disciplinary action had been taken. ASP Nuhu Usman remained on active duty, armed and dangerous.
The details of Mene Ogidi's murder are so horrific that the footage alone has become a national trauma. On the day of the incident, Mene had arrived at the Effurun Motor Park with a parcel he intended to dispatch. Park officials, following standard procedure, insisted on inspecting the contents. The parcel was found to contain a fabricated Beretta pistol and four rounds of ammunition, though the victim had repeatedly claimed he was carrying the package on behalf of a friend and did not know its contents. Park officials restrained him and called the police. A team from the Area Command, Effurun, was dispatched. The team was led by ASP Nuhu Usman. By the time Usman arrived, the suspect was already tied up, subdued, and cooperating. Viral footage captured what happened next. The handcuffed and leg‑bound victim sat on the ground, shouting, "Please don't kill me, officer. My friend in Sapele sent me to pick up the parcel. He deceived me. I am innocent. I will take you to him." Usman ignored the pleas. He raised his rifle and shot. The AK‑47 jammed. A colleague removed his own magazine and handed it to Usman. The team leader reloaded, cocked, and fired again at close range, hitting the victim in the left arm. Witnesses and activists later confirmed that Mene did not die at the scene. Usman loaded him into a vehicle, took him to the police station, and shot him a second time. The young man was pronounced dead shortly after.
The instant the footage appeared online, outrage exploded across Nigeria. Civil society organisations, human rights activists, and ordinary citizens demanded immediate justice. But for those who knew of the 2023 petition, the anger was compounded by a sickening realisation: this death could have been prevented. Human rights activist Harrison Gwamnishu, who led much of the online campaign for justice, publicly demanded to know why an officer with such a documented history of brutality was still in uniform. Fans and followers of the Obidient movement and other civil society groups flooded social media with clips of the old petition video, asking the same devastating question: if the House of Representatives had acted decisively in 2023, would Mene Ogidi still be alive?
The police leadership, facing a crisis of public confidence, moved with unusual speed. The Inspector‑General of Police, Olatunji Disu, ordered the immediate transfer of all officers involved to Force Headquarters in Abuja. The Force Disciplinary Committee and an Orderly Room Tribunal were convened. Their findings were unequivocal. Disu announced that the investigation had confirmed "without any ambiguity" that ASP Nuhu Usman acted in gross violation of Force Order 247, which governs the use of firearms, and established standard operational procedures. "Let me be clear," Disu said. "This action was criminal, it was unprofessional, and it has no place in the Nigeria Police Force." The Force Disciplinary Committee recommended the immediate dismissal of ASP Nuhu Usman and four other officers found culpable. On May 4, 2026, the Police Service Commission ratified the dismissal, making it effective immediately. The case file was forwarded to the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation for criminal prosecution on charges of unlawful homicide. The driver who delivered the original parcel, as well as two vigilante members seen aiding Usman in the viral video, remain at large.
For the Police Service Commission and the Inspector‑General, these actions represented a necessary, if belated, attempt to restore trust. For the family of Mene Ogidi, justice is only beginning. The mother of the deceased, Mrs. Campaign Stella Ogidi, gave a heart‑breaking interview in which she revealed that this was the second son she had lost to police brutality. Her first son was killed by police in 2022, and his father died a month later from grief. "What have I done to the police?" she wept. "Two of my children have been killed by the police. How do I survive this?" For the people of Ujevwu, Warri, and for everyone who watched the video of a handcuffed young man begging for his life, the question is no longer just about one rogue officer. It is about a system that was warned about him two years ago and did nothing. It is about accountability that only arrives after a body has been counted. And it is about the unbearable price that ordinary Nigerians keep paying while those in power look away.
As of today, ASP Nuhu Usman stands dismissed from the Nigeria Police Force and awaits trial for murder. The House of Representatives has not yet commented on why its 2023 investigation yielded no tangible action. But the public has already delivered its verdict: in Nigeria, you can be reported to the highest legislative body in the land, and still walk free to kill again.
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