. As group petitions CP, urges audit of personnel
A civil society organisation, Rule of Law And Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) has petitioned the Imo state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Isaac Akinmoyede demanding urgent sanitisation of the command in line with professional best practices.
RULAAC catalogued some of the most recent atrocious conducts of Police officers attached to the Imo state police command and called on the state Police Commissioner to audit every unit and department of the command and flush out all officers regardless of rank, that has a predilection for corruption, extortion, abuse of power and misuse of firearms.
He also urged the CP to take corrective action against the prevailing climate of impunity that embolden officers in the command to take abusive, unlawful and extrajudicial actions against citizens.
The petition is reproduced hereunder:
July 10, 2020
The Commissioner of Police,
Imo state Police Command,
(CP Isaac Akinmoyede)
Owerri,
Imo State.
Dear Sir
CALL FOR AUDIT: TIME TO SANITIZE IMO STATE POLICE COMMAND
The Rule of Law And Accountability Advocacy Centre(RULAAC) writes to call on CP Isaac Akinmoyede, the Commissioner of Police, Imo state Police Command, to immediately conduct an audit of personnel in the command to identify and flush out corrupt and abusive officers and sanitize the command under his leadership.
The shooting of a commercial motorcyclist by a Police officer in Orlu metropolis, on Tuesday July 7, 2020 which resulted in the death of the motorcyclist for as simple ‘an offence’ as not wearing a facemask and for refusing to offer bribe demanded by the police team on Stop-and-Search operation, which precipitated a mass uprising in Orlu in Imo State, is a culmination of ongoing corrupt, abusive and unchecked predatory activities of unscrupulous police officers which have been condoned for too long by senior officers who themselves are sometimes complicit.
It is the climate of impunity created by the failure to rein in these corrupt and unprofessional officers and check their excesses that has emboldened them and imbued in them the feeling that they can do whatever they like and get away with it.
RULAAC and other human rights advocacy groups have intervened in a number of cases since the advent of Covid-19 pandemic which prompted the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to issue directives to police officers to restrict arrest and detention based on the gravity of offences, to decongest the cells and minimize visits and invitations to police stations as part of social distancing protective measures to reduce crowding and physical contacts in police stations.
But these directives and the subsequent guidelines issued by the IGP have been observed largely in breach in Imo State.
Our engagement with senior officers at the State Command headquarters over specific cases reveal an attitude that encourages or rationalises abuses rather than a determination to ensure compliance with the IGP’s directives which are meant to check reckless, abusive behaviours and protect officers and members of the public from infection. The IGP has also had cause at various occasions to admonish officers to act professionally and to respect the human rights of citizens. He has reiterated this at every opportunity including during the launch and unveiling of the recently reviewed Force Order 237 which regulates the use of force and firearms by police officers.
But for many police officers – of all ranks – under the Imo State command, the call to enforce measures imposed by government to contain Covid-19 became another opportunity for them to prey on residents by tormenting, harassing and extorting money from them through intimidation, threat and brutal force. From reports and witness evidence, it would appear that this was the context in which the poor commercial motorcyclist in Orlu was brutally killed by a policeman who was probably substance-possessed.
Had the outcry of oppressed and distraught Imo residents crying to the authorities to save them from the excesses and oppressive predilection of these unscrupulous officers been heeded, the life of the poor man would not have been so mindlessly cut short by the bullets of a reckless, corrupt and unprofessional officer.
The abusive activities of some police officers under the command range from random and arbitrary arrests and detention of innocent people in the pretext of enforcing lockdown, in utter disregard of the IGP’s directives and with the primary motive to extort money; dabbling into land disputes and harassment and extortion of innocent people after framing them with crimes, among others.
We will illustrate with few cases where we have had to intervene:
1). On Monday, April 20, 2020, Action Group Legal Helpline, a group of CSO groups (of which RULAAC is a member) working collectively to provide legal support and assistance to victims of abuse by law enforcement agencies involved in the enforcement of the lockdown across states in Nigeria received information concerning the arrest of one Mr Benjamin Ibezim.
Mr Ibezim was arrested when he stepped out the previous night to look for a vehicle to take his pregnant wife to the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Owerri. He was detained at the State CID, Owerri.
The group received the information later the next day, and put phone calls across to the then Commissioner of Police, Imo State Police Command and the Police Public Relations Officer (PRO), SP Ikeokwu Godson Orlando seeking the release of Mr. Ibezim.
However, in the process of investigating the group’s complaints concerning the arrest and detention of Mr. Ibezim, the officer assigned by the CP to investigate discovered that there were 5 other persons together with Mr Ibezim in the cell arrested under similar circumstances. We made efforts to get them released as well.
The Police PRO went there personally and passed the CP’s directive to the officers to release them all. As soon as the PRO left, they released only Mr Ibezim, but asked the remaining persons to pay fifty thousand Naira (N50,000.00) each. We were informed that some even negotiated fifteen thousand Naira (N15,000.00) and the officers refused. The 5 others remained in detention for more days in violation of both the IGP’s directives and their constitutional rights. They were only released days after, after the payment of various sums in bribe.
This case is only illustrative of what is the norm rather than the exception in Imo State Police Headquarters and other stations under the command.
2). On April 23, 2020 RULAAC also received information about one Dennis Onyeka an over 70-year-old man from Umuowa, Ngor Okpala LGA, Imo State who was served a letter of invitation by some Police Officers from the SIB Imo State Police Command, Owerri, directing him to report at the station that same morning. The letter did not indicate any police officer’s name except phone numbers: 07062070401 and 07039700743.
An officer who did not disclose his name started calling him and threatening him with arrest if he did not report at the station over what his lawyer informed us was ‘a trivial family dispute between him and his brother’s wife.’ The old man said there has been a lingering family dispute between him and his late brother’s wife and that his said late brother’s wife uses her brother who works in an oil company and moves about with Police Mobile escorts to constantly harass him. They simply wanted to get him detained again.
RULAAC brought this matter to the attention of the PPRO and drew his attention to the IGP’s directive restricting invitation or arrest to minor offences during this pandemic.
Moreover, there was curfew in Imo State at the time which attracted penalties for breach. It is a very far distance between Ngor Okpala and the State Police Headquarters.
SP Ikeokwu Orlando, the PPRO Imo in his response said: ‘Please let him go to the said office, if they are on illegal duty they won’t invite him to the office,they wont even drop invitation letter, so there nothing bad in him reporting to the State Intelligence Bureau with the said letter’.
RULAAC then called the two numbers in the invitation and spoke with two officers (who didn’t disclose their names) including one who said he’s the head of the unit. We inquired why they were inviting the old man from such a distance during this period of restriction of movement over a land dispute. His answer was that the IGP can give directives in Abuja but they are exercising their discretion as officers. I asked if he was saying that he is not complying with the IGP’s directives. He said his CP directed them to invite the parties.
We could not confirm if the CP truly gave that directive but they eventually arrested the old man in the early hours of the next morning. His lawyer informed us that they made him pay bribe before he was released late at night.
3). We have also found that some Police Officers under the command have perfected a subterfuge by which they dabble into land or other civil matters. The usual stratagem is to frame false allegations of ‘threat to life and conduct likely to cause breach of peace’ against one party and when they arrest the victim, they detain and intimidate the victim, sometimes subjecting him or her to torture in a bid to force him or her to give up his or her claims over the actual matter in dispute – usually land.
If such victims have no senior police officer or other persons to intervene for them on time, they may end up being forced to write undertakings not to make any further claims to what may actually belong to them and then they are further extorted huge sums of money in bribe to ‘bail themselves’.
This is a common odious and criminal practice by which some Police officers dabble into civil matters and pervert justice for their selfish monetary gain.
Again, when RULAAC contacted SP Ikeokwu Orlando, PPRO on a particular case, his response was: “Good morning, please it’s not the fault of the POLICE, blame the person who complained. Every allegation is subject to investigation. If u have a land in dispute and a party go to the POLICE and report kidnapping What should the POLICE do? Tell him go to home so dat dey find out the truth before acting?????. It must be investigated and during the investigation it is discovered its land, it will be refused civil…”
4). Again on July 22, 2020 RULAAC received information that one Mr. Ezechi Oloko who hails from Amakohia in Ihitte Uboma, Imo State was allegedly assaulted by one Uche Nwokorie of the same community. The photo of the victim showing the degree of injury which included a severed finger was attached.
A report of this assault had been lodged at the local police division Ihitte Uboma Division and the assailant was arrested while the victim remained in hospital for treatment of the injury on his eye and the severed finger from the assault.
The assailant is said to have a notorious criminal record in the community, emboldened by the fact that his brother is a police officer at the police headquarters Owerri.
The assailant’s policeman-brother (with phone number 07030412300) came from Owerri with another police officer, Sergeant Asuquo (with phone number 07031292788) and dropped a police invitation for the victim’s father asking him to report to the O/C D18 or Sgnt Asuquo on June 23, 2020 for ‘Defamation of character and conduct’.
Inquiries from Ihitte Uboma Police Division revealed that the assailant’s police brother and Sgt Asuquo who came from the state command headquarters Owerri did not make any entry at the local division when they arrived.
It turned out that the assailant’s Police brother wanted to use his police powers to intimidate the family of the victim and to protect his brother from being investigated at the local police station and prosecuted for his crime of assault occasioning grievous harm.
In the first place, defamation which they alleged in the letter of invitation is not a crime, but a “tort” (a civil wrong, rather than a criminal wrong). The inclusion of conduct was just a ruse.
RULAAC contacted the DC CID and the PPRO and requested them to intervene.
RULAAC inquired why the OC D18, State CID Imo State Police Command would require Mr Godfrey Oloko to travel all the way from Ihitte Uboma to distant Owerri over a phantom allegation of ‘defamation of character and Conduct’ as he stated in the letter of invitation?
Meanwhile, Ihitte Uboma Division had already investigated and charged the matter to court.
In his response, Ikeokwu Orlando PPRO Imo said: ‘Yes there is a directive from the IG on that, but the directive says “minimize” and not “stop”, kindly allow the man to go and heed to the invitation please. He added that ‘the person who wrote petition said he had no confidence in the police there, it is his right’. He concluded: ‘The SCID is headed by a DCP and an ACP, so even if a police man is interested in the matter he may not be able to influence the DC and AC’.
CALL FOR ACTION
While it is imperative that the CP Imo State ensures a prompt, impartial and effective investigation into the tragedy at the Banana Junction in Orlu town of Imo State on Tuesday where a police inspector shot dead a 27-year-old man for not wearing a face mask, the CP must also bear in mind that the climate of impunity that allowed that killing to happen must be addressed. Such reckless and unprofessional actions are motivated by corruption and facilitated by impunity. Impunity must be addressed.
The CP Imo State needs to urgently carry out an audit of police officers of all levels in the command, identify those who have predilection for corruption and abuse and who have been subject of numerous complaints of abuse, including senior officers who condone or justify corruption, abuse and misconduct. The CP must ensure that such officers who dent the reputation of the NPF are identified, isolated and appropriately dealt with in accordance with police regulations and Nigeria law.
We look forward to a sincere engagement with you towards improving citizen perception of the Imo State Police Command under your leadership.
Sincerely,
Okechukwu Nwanguma
Executive Director
08064974531
