I’m still alive only by God’s grace, says mother of 28-year-old shot dead by police in Delta
• Insists son was never troublesome or violent My child did not go to send any parcel (waybill). He left the house with empty hands.” Those were the words of
• Insists son was never troublesome or violent
My child did not go to send any parcel (waybill). He left the house with empty hands.”
Those were the words of Mrs Campaign Ogidi, 58-year-old mother of Oghenemine Ogidi, the 28-year-old man shot dead at close range by some policemen at Effurun Roundabout in Delta State, whose video, which has been trending since Sunday, has sparked outrage and renewed scrutiny of police conduct.
In the said video, the young man is seen pleading passionately with his killer not to pull the trigger as he pointed the gun at him, but his pleas fell on deaf ears and he was shot point blank.
His mother, Campaign, has been inconsolable ever since and was still in tears and lamentation when our correspondent visited yesterday.
Madam Campaign said theirs is a family of contentment and none of its members would go into crime. She and other family members described the late Oghenemine, as a calm and peaceful individual, saying he had left home at about 3 pm that afternoon on what she said was “a simple errand”.
She said: “I do small businesses. Me and the children, we manage. The elderly one, when he has, he sends to me. This one, too (points at her daughter), she sends for me and we get by.
“My son was not troublesome. He was very quiet. When he holds his phone, he just seats outside there, sings, deletes and records.
“He was not a violent person. If he meets people quarrelling, he liked to just distance himself."
She said since she received the news of her deceased son, she has being only by “God's grace”.
She said: “I am living by the grace of God. As I am sitting like this, it's the grace of God.
“When I heard the news that my son died, I didn't think I would still be alive now. So it is the grace of God.
Narrating the events that culminated in her son’s death, she said: “All I know, my child told me he was going to pick waybill for somebody, his friend. That is what I believe. My child did not go to send a parcel (waybill); he went to pick, because he left my house with empty hands. And he was called (on the phone) to go to so-so place.
"The person called him before he used my phone to call the person. He could not use his own (phone) because he had borrowed (credit). And if he bought card in it, they (network provider) would deduct it. So he bought recharge card on my own and used it.
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“So he left. We waited and waited, we did not see him. We called his phone, it was switched off. We called mine, it rang and rang, but nobody picked it. We called many times until we slept.
“I didn't know that before we slept, my children had got information that he was arrested. As soon as it was dawn (on Monday), the eldest one got up, that he was going to work. That was how he went to all the police stations but did not see him.
"When he returned, he told me what was happening, that he learnt my son was arrested, but he had gone to all the police stations around but did not see him. I asked them to call the phones again but they were all switched off.
“On Tuesday morning again, he went around, even to that Ekpan Police Station, with one of his police friends. The Ekpan Police Station said they knew nothing; that they did not even see my son.
"It was after then they returned and posted his pictures, saying 'Missing Person'. They explained that he said he was going to pick up waybill from round about, but he had not been seen since Sunday. It was from that missing person post that the video of him tied on the ground came out.”
The case gained further attention on Friday, after rights advocate Harrison Gwamnishu alleged that two individuals—identified as Efe and Godwin— seen in the video carrying the deceased, were civilians, not police officers, raising questions about the official narrative and the identities of those involved.
Police authorities, the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 5 Benin and the Commissioner of Police, Delta State, visited on Thursday.
According to Mrs Ogidi, assurances were given—but key concerns remain unresolved.
“They only told us that they must get to the roots of the matter. And they must give us the justice we want. That they have already dismissed the policeman from service, so now he is a civilian, so he can face the charges.”
Yet, even in death, the family says they have been left waiting.
“We asked about the phones he carried, a small Tecno phone which is mine, and his own phone. We have not seen them. Even his dead body we have not seen.
“The AIG told us not to worry, that we will see them today, Friday. But when we called them, they said the DPO had not returned from Abuja, so it should be on Monday.”
Asked about faith in the justice process, her response was cautious. “We are still in the process,” she said.
For the deceased’s elder brother, Victory Ogidi, the loss is both personal and generational. Oghenemine, the third child, had followed in their late father’s footsteps as a plumber and musician.
“Oghenemine was the third born. He was working with me as a plumber. Our father was a plumber so we just took up the job after he passed.”
He also spoke of a quieter side of his brother’s life—music, a family thread that ran deep.
“Music has been in our family. My father was a musician, though he didn't go public, even my late uncle.”
Despite delays and shifting explanations from authorities, the family says it is holding on to hope.
“We have not seen the body. They said we should come for the body today. But today, we called the DPO and he is giving us an excuse to wait till Monday.
“We have faith,” the eldest Ogidi son said.
As questions linger over what exactly happened at Effurun Roundabout, the Ogidi family continues to wait—not just for answers, but for the return of a son whose last errand, they insist, was simply to pick up a parcel.
