As family decries continued detention of corpse by Police
OWERRI— Imo State Police Command, yesterday, said it was determined to unravel what killed the ace actor, Mr. Sam Loco Efe, in Rapour Hotel, Owerri, last Sunday.
The Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department, CID, Mr. Emmanuel Ojukwu, who spoke to us, said:
“We are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of the ace Nollywood actor in his hotel room in Owerri.
The man attained a national and international status and we are duty bound to get all the details of the matter.”
Meanwhile, friends and family members of the Nollywood actor have decried the delay in releasing his corpse to them by the police.
A family member, yesterday told us, that the police had shifted the blame for the delay on logistics, adding that they were insisting on carrying out autopsy to ascertain the cause of the actor’s death.
Similarly, Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State, has described Sam Loco’s death as “a great loss to the entertainment industry, Enugu State and Nigeria at large.”
Decrying the delay in releasing remains of the late entertainment icon, a family member, said: “It is not only against the Benin tradition to withhold the corpse, but importantly, it is taking a toll on our pockets, as some of us had to travel to Owerri in the bid to return to Benin with the corpse.”
They appealled to the police to release the corpse to enable the family plan a befitting burial for the deceased.
The Police in Owerri, according to Mr Ojukwu, have quizzed a number of people, including some staff of Rapour Hotel, noting that nobody has so far been indicted in the process.
Ojukwu said: “Honestly, we are working hard to unravel the cause of Sam Loco’s death. Nobody has so far been indicted in the matter, including the staff of Rapour Hotel.”
According to the CID boss, the police had planned the autopsy to ascertain the cause of the man’s death, adding that the personality involved and the circumstance(s) that led to his death makes autopsy imperative.
He expressed displeasure that some members of the late actor’s immediate family were angling for an early burial without the planned autopsy.
“Some members of Sam Loco’s family have started kicking against the autopsy. The first son and first daughter came with some Nollywood stars to the Command last Tuesday, to demand for an early burial,” the ACP said.
Explaining the need for the autopsy, he said, “The world was told that the man died in a hotel room. The world must be told what killed him. We rely on the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, to do this bit of the job for the police.”
