Whistleblower: Studied Silence over Alleged Killings by Anambra Police Officers

Despite leaks by a whistleblower on alleged human rights abuses by senior police officers in Anambra State, not much has been heard of investigation of the allegations by the authorities as the matter seems to have been swept under the carpet, a move many described as police notoriety, reports David-Chyddy Eleke

Two months after a popular blogger; Gistlover revealed shoddy practices of some senior police officers serving in Anambra State Police Command, which also led to the arrest of a serving corps member, Daniel Nnamdi Emeh, there has been silence by the authorities, after the initial arrest and release of the police officers.

Gistlover, an anonymous blogger had in early February, raised alarm about the activities of some police officers in Anambra. The blogger named the police officers involved in the practices to include; CSP Patrick Agbazue, who is the commander of Rapid Response Squad (RRS) in Awkuzu, Anambra State; SP Nkeiru Nwode, the Zonal Public Relations Officer of Zone 13, Ukpo; and one Inspector Harrison Akama, who is attached to the RRS, a police department, which now occupies the same complex, previously used by the notorious and outlawed Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Awkuzu.

Arrest of Whistleblower 

The Anambra State Police Command had in the wake of the revelation declared the serving corps member, Mr Nnamdi Emeh wanted, over allegations of impersonation, abscondment, possession of firearm and blackmail. 

Emeh, who was working under the state police command, and attached with the RRS in Awkuzu, was also working as a tracker for the police outfit. Emeh, an IT expert was believed to have details of rights abuses and unethical practices of the top officers, and was believed to have leaked their secret information to the anonymous blogger, Gistlover. He was later tracked down, after he was declared wanted, and arrested in Benin Republic.

Since after his arrest, he has been taken into custody, but surprisingly, the officers to whom Emeh revealed their alleged unethical practices were left off the hook, just one day after they were invited to Force Headquarters, Abuja. This has left many with the impression that the police force is not ready to serve justice. 

This is coming over two years after a nationwide protest against the activities of policemen, in which operatives of the SARS were widely condemned for their inhuman practices. Though the protest was a nationwide issue, Anambra was singled out for the high-handedness of its operatives, and CSP James Nwafor who was onetime commander of the outfit, were heaped with allegations of killings.

 The protest led to the disbandment of SARS, and in Anambra, the Awkuzu SARS office, which was said to be notorious for killings is now rechristened as an Annex of the police, and handed over to RRS for operation.

Awkuzu: SARS/RRS, What Has changed?

Sources who knew the Awkuzu SARS Office before the disbandment said there was a cell named ‘hell’ in the facility. It had a bold inscription ‘Welcome to hell’. 

Only supposedly hardened criminals were kept in the cell, but many said even supposedly innocent suspects were sometimes kept there, tortured until they confessed to crimes they knew nothing about, and accepted to do the bidding rogue police operatives, by paying their way out.

The chief operator, Nwafor was then said to be so deadly and temperamental that if anyone had the ill luck of making him draw open a drawer in his office where he always kept a silver coloured pistol, he must shoot, even if it meant on the victim’s feet, but unlucky ones have had to be sent to their early graves. He was quoted by many who passed through that office as boasting that nothing will happen if he killed a suspect.

With the disbandment SARS, Awkuzu, led by Nwafor, and the  constitution the RRS, led by CSP Patrick Agbazue, a young, boyish, handsome and likeable officer of the police force, and the allegations of atrocities against him, one would be tempted to wonder what is different between Agbazue’s RRS and Nwafor’s SARS.

Allegations against Agbazue and Co

From allegations by Gistlover and testimonies from victims and their relatives, the trio of Agbazue, Nwode and Akama have been serially involved in illegal arrests, torture, extortion from arrested suspects, murder and even organ harvests.

There are detailed information about the operations of the trio, which includes the allegations of dispossession of suspects of monies in their accounts upon arrest, their cars and other belongings, which the police officers allegedly keep for themselves. 

They were also accused of selling the body parts of most of their victims to enrich themselves. 

Many who know of the operations of the RRS in Awkuzu said SARS was a more friendly organisation, compared to RRS, just as many insisted Agbazue was a more deadly officer than Nwafor.

SP Nwode and Allegations of Marrying a Non-commissioned Policeman 

For Nwode particularly, she was also said to have secretly married Akama, a lower ranked police officer, an act said to be against police ethics. This is outside an existing marriage, which she is into, which yielded a child. 

Police IG and Initial Investigation 

Wadding into the allegations, the Inspector General of Police, Mr Usman Alkali Baba in a press statement by the  Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, assured that: “In light of the serious allegations leveled against the officers – CSP Patrick Agbazue, officer-in-charge of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), Anambra State Command; SP Nwode Nkeiruka, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Zone 13 Headquarters, Ukpo-Dunukofia, and Inspector Harrison Akama attached to the RRS, they reported at the Force Headquarters, Louis Edet House, Abuja today Friday 17th February, 2023, on the directives of the IGP for commencement of investigations to ascertain the veracity of the allegations for further necessary action, while the panel has been given a period of two weeks to come up with a report of investigations.”

Anambra Governor’s Intervention 

The Anambra State Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, being worried about the weight of crimes being allegedly committed by the officers in his state also ordered the Attorney General of the State, Mrs Sylvia Chika Ifemeje, to call for a review of all case files with allegations of human rights abuses by the officers.

 In a statement, Christian Aburime, Soludo’s press secretary said, “Preliminary inquiry has revealed that the Inspector General of Police has set up a Special Investigation Panel to investigate the allegations at the end of which a report would be issued. 

“In the meantime, I have requested the Attorney General of Anambra State to immediately call for, and review all the files of cases on allegation of commission of offences created by the laws of our State, being handled by the said RRS. 

“This will enable the Attorney General to give such directions or take such necessary legal actions in line with section 211 of the Constitution and sections 148, 149 and 150 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Anambra State 2022.”

Fears for Arrested Corper 

Meanwhile, there are fears that the Police may not be comfortable to have Emeh arraigned in court. This is because it is feared that as an IT expert that worked closely with many top officers and had access to information, he may have several other pieces of information he is yet to declare about some top officers.

 Recently, Sahara Reporters, an online news portal declared that there is a grand plot at the Anambra State command to kill Emeh, and to make excuses that he was trying to escape from cell. 

The medium quoted top sources who said that some police officers planned to gun down the whistleblower instead of arraigning him in court because of the “volume of information” at his disposal which could implicate several police personnel. 

The source was quoted as saying: “The volume of information available to the man is mind boggling. We are afraid that if he is arraigned in court, he may bring down the entire police force. He has the names of everybody involved, the dates and time of every incident. The police cannot afford to arraign him in court.”

CSO’s Demand

A coalition of civil society organisations had three weeks ago demanded the release of Emeh. The organisations had in a joint statement called on the police authorities to immediately drop the trumped-up charges of “unlawful possession of firearm, money laundering, defamation of character, fraud, and impersonation” leveled against the corps member. 

The organisations included African Centre for Media & Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), HEDA Resource Centre, Accountability Lab, Progressive Impact Organisation for Community Development (PRIMORG), Social Development Integrated Centre (Social Action), Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) and Sterling Centre for Law & Development Access to Justice. 

Others are the Southern Free Press, Inc Centre for Human Rights Advocacy & Wholesome Society (CEHRAWS), Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre RULAAC, Human Rights Social Development and Environmental Foundation (HURSDEF), Confluence of Rights, Workers & Youth Solidarity Network, Rivers Civil Society Organisations. Justice for Peace and Development Initiative Avocats Sans Frontières and Nnaemeka Ejiofor & Associates.

The coordinator of the Anambra State Police Partnership Forum, Mr Okechukwu Nwanguma while addressing the group said: “We are shocked that the crude method of  policing. This was what which led to the #EndSARS protest, and it is still with us. If this continues, what we will see next will make #EndSARS look like a joke. 

“We are still aware of the detention of a whistleblower who gave information about the activities of some top police officers in Anambra. As we speak, the whistleblower is in detention, but the officers were not even suspended for investigation to go on, untampered with.”

A human rights group, Civil Society Coalition  Against Impunity, on a recent Sunday, however alerted that close to two months after the panel was constituted, the police had Sunday morning handed over the whistleblower, Emeh to a team of four police officers, led by one SP Ayo, who is the Officer in charge of Homicide, State CID, Awka, and that he was being moved from Abuja to Awka. 

A short text sent to this reporter read: “They are currently traveling by road this morning Sunday, 2 April 2023, on their way to Anambra State. There are serious concerns that Nnamdi Emeh may not arrive Awka alive, and may never have his day in court. 

“He has been detained incommunicado in the Police headquarters Abuja since Friday, March 3, 2023, after he was arrested in Benin Republic. He is the only child of his aged parents. Please raise your voice to prevent the unlawful execution of Nnamdi Emeh,” the group called.

Continuous Disappearance in Police Detention 

In the midst of the allegations against the police, some indigenes of the state have also lamented the continuous disappearance of their children. 

During a stakeholders meeting of media and Civil Society Groups, under the auspices of Anambra State Police Stakeholders Partnership Forum in Awka, two parents lamented that one year after their children were arrested by police operatives, they are yet to be found. The men, Mr Titus Orji and Gilbert Obinwa lamented that police operatives were also reluctant to help them trace the whereabouts of their children.

Narrating his story, Orji said his son, Jeremiah Chibuzor Orji, a student of Federal Polytechnic, Oko left his student’s lodge at Oko Community after he received a call at about 9pm, but never returned. “This happened on 19 March 2022. He was my only son, and we have looked for him everywhere. Some people in his area told us that some security men carrying guns were seen that night, close to his lodge, forcing him into a white bus.”

Also, Mr Gilbert Obinwa in his own testimony said: “I was at home on April 24, 2022, when some policemen invaded my compound in Ekwulọbịa and arrested my son. As they were leaving, a boy who was working with my son came in with the Okada man who brought him, and they arrested both of them and left. 

“They didn’t tell me what their offence was, or where they were taking them. I have been to every known police station since then looking for them, to no avail. We engaged a tracker, who showed that the boys are being kept in a certain location in Nteje community, and we involved the police, but they told us that area is dangerous, and that they won’t go.”

Studied Silence over Panel 

Two months after, the investigation, which was supposed to last for just two weeks, seems not to have been concluded. 

 Investigations by THISDAY however showed that the panel was moved from Abuja to Anambra State, which is the jurisdiction of the crime. But surprisingly, it was learnt that the sittings are rather held in secret, just as attempt to find out where the sitting was holding failed.

The state police command’s spokesperson, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga could not tell THISDAY where the sitting is held, or what has so far be done by the panel. He rather referred this reporter to the Force Public Relations officer, CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, saying that the matter was no longer in the jurisdiction of the command, but now a Force Headquarters matter.

Force Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi reacting to whether the panel had submitted its report said: “I am aware that the team has carried an investigation into the allegations, and a report has been sent to the IGP recently. I will get a copy of the report and act.”

 Also, on whether Emeh was being ferried by road to Anambra, Adejobi said: “I will need to find out about that.”

On the other hand, the Anambra State government was unable to explain what came out of the review of the case files of some complainants that had to do with the matters, to which the senior police officers were being accused, as directed by the state governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo.

 When THISDAY visited the office of the commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of the state, Mrs Sylvia Chika Ifemeje, she was not disposed to entertain questions. Calls to her were also avoided.

 When THISDAY posed the question of how far her ministry had gone in reviewing matters relating to complaints against the senior police officers, she quickly hung up, and never took further calls. 

However, a source within her office said: “That move to review the case files was just a face saving move by the governor. Since after the announcement, I’m not aware of any review of case files by the commissioner.”

Quote

We are shocked that the crude method of  policing. This was what which led to the #EndSARS protest, and it is still with us. If this continues, what we will see next will make #EndSARS look like a joke. We are still aware of the detention of a whistleblower who gave information about the activities of some top police officers in Anambra