Exclusive: 'JTF are liars! They shot him twice & dragged his body to a waterfront- Brother of footballer Izu Joseph reveals
Izu
Reuben Junior, the brother to late Shooting Stars (3SC) of Ibadan
footballer Izu Joseph (left), who was shot dead last Sunday by the JTF in
Rivers State has come out
to categorically deny claims by the JTF that Izu was shot in a den of cultists
(a cultist's shrine), saying the JTF shot Izu Joseph twice contrary to reports
released by the JTF Military that he was killed by a stray bullet.
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, 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.
'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.
''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'' He continued.
'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 .
Watch the video from the
'broken' Izu Reuben below....
No comments:
Post a Comment