Police Shot 15-Year-Old Playing Outside, Called Him ‘Armed Robber’ — Amnesty International

Enugu, Aug. 25, 2025 — Amnesty International has accused officers of the Nigeria Police Force of extrajudicially executing a 15-year-old boy, Emmanuel Egbo, in Enugu in September 2008, describing the incident as a grave human rights violation.

According to eyewitness accounts cited by Amnesty, Egbo was playing with other children outside his uncle’s home when a police officer approached to speak with them. Two other officers later joined, and one of them reportedly pulled out his weapon and shot the teenager, alleging he was an armed robber. Witnesses, however, maintained that Egbo was unarmed and engaged in play with his peers.

The Civil Liberty Organization (CLO), a Nigerian rights group, intervened by submitting two petitions, while the victim’s relatives made repeated visits to the police station in search of accountability. However, they were later informed that the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) assigned to the case had been transferred.

“The police officer told us that the boy was an armed robber and the case had been closed. It was a nightmare to us to learn of this development,” the family said in a statement.

In August 2009, almost a year after the killing, the family discovered that Egbo’s body had disappeared from the mortuary. As of November 2009, Amnesty International reported that the whereabouts of the body remained unknown.

The rights group highlighted the case as part of a broader pattern of police abuses, calling for justice and accountability for victims of unlawful killings in Nigeria.