▪︎Adjourns other complaints to Nov.17, 30, Dec. 2 for Police response

The Independent Investigative Panel on allegations of human rights violations by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and other units of the Nigerian Police force Monday ordered the Police to produce Edward Dumsiri Leera whose brother, Confidence Leera, alleged was held in police custody since November 1, 2019.

The panel also gave the Police team led by James Idachaba till Tuesday, November 17, 2020 to respond to a case involving threat to life of Mr Bello Akubuokwu who was allegedly hit by Police bullet during Shiite clash with the Police at the Federal Secretariat in 2019.

Chairman of the panel, retired Justice Suleiman Galadima who made the orders at the FCT ceremonial court, venue of the panel’s sitting, adjourned the case to Thursday November 19, 2020 to enable the Police make the necessary arrangements towards ensuring the appearance of SP Martins Samuel, DSP Essien E. Edet Esq., ASP David Ahmed Agbo, IGP, IRT “D” Division Itam, Uyo, Commissioner of Police, Akwa Ibom and Inspector General of Police, who are the 1st to 6th respondents respectively.

Prior to the order, elder brother to the victim, Confidence who was led by his counsel, Giwa Victor, testified before the Panel about some of the ordeals of his missing brother in the hands of the affected Police officers.

According to the complainant, the victim was arrested, detained for no just cause and his car confiscated and converted to personal use by IPO ASP David Ahmed Agbo.

In addition, he alleged that ASP Agbo is now driving the car belonging to the victim, as well as allegedly making cash withdrawals from the victim’s bank account using his ATM between the period of November 2019 to October 2020.

He informed the panel that his family was asked to pay the sum of three million naira (N3m) by the police before Edward would be released.

Continuing, he stated that unfortunately, Edward Dumisara was not arraigned before any court of law in Nigeria and when the family got worried over his long incaceration, they instituted a suit for the enforcement of his fundamental rights in suit No. BHC/202/2019.

“Subsequently, on December 17, 2019 the honourable court ordered hearing of the application of Edward Dumisara Leera and delivered judgment in his favour and ordered immediate release of the said Edward.

He added that the order was served on the Police but they refused to obey.

He lamented that instead of complying with the court judgment of December 2019, Edward Dimisara was charged to court on seven-count charge before Honourable Justice E.N. Ogbuji in suit No. PHC/287/CR/2020 but IRT has neither produced him in court nor released him in accordance with the earlier court order.

Against the backdrop of the foregoing, he told the panel that it seemed the victim had been killed extra judicially and disposed of.

Meanwhile, four other cases such as the case of extra- judicial killing of a corps member, Linda Igwetu, by the Police were adjourned to December 2, 2020 for the 1st respondent, Inspector Benjamin Peters, to be produced before the panel.

Similarly, a complaint of abuse of office and arbitrary arrest of Engr. Nicholas Ogbedo Azuka was adjourned to November 30, 2020 because the Police legal team pleaded for more time to study the case file and make necessary arrangements to bring the respondents to the panel.

In the same vein, a complaint of alleged abuse of office and intimidation also by Engr. Nicholas Ogbedo Azuka was ajourned to 2nd December, 2020 to give more time to the Police towards ensuring the appearance of the respondents as ordered by the panel.

Earlier, a team of Counsel to the National Human Rights Commission led by Chino Obiagwu (SAN) told the panel that the Police were properly served with the processes and proceedings of the honourable panel and therefore should be ready for the cases.

CP legal and lead counsel to the Police promised to bring all the police respondents to the panel to ensure that justice is served to all the parties concerned.

Leaders of the South-South geopolitical zone have demanded a public apology from the Federal Government over botched stakeholders meeting in PortHarcourt on Tuesday.

Governors of the South-South led by its Chairman and Governor of Delta, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, who was in PortHarcourt for the meeting, had informed the stakeholders comprising traditional rulers, religious leaders, opinion leaders, youths and women from the zone that the Presidential delegation which convened the meeting, had cancelled it.

Okowa, who spoke for the governors, informed the people that the Presidency gave an emergency security meeting called by President Muhammadu Buhari as a reason for cancelling the PortHarcourt meeting.

Irked by the information, the stakeholders expressed displeasure with the development, describing it as disrespect to the people of the region and called for an immediate public apology from the Presidency.

They said that the action of the Federal Government amounted to treating the South-South and its people with disdain, and warned on the consequences of undermining the zone.

But in a solemn appeal to douse tension, Governor Okowa implored the people to remain calm in the face of the disrespect and embarrassment caused by the cancellation of the meeting.

He said that the governors were as pained as the other stakeholders over the disappointment, and assured that the governors would definitely convey the feeling of the people of the region to the Presidency.

“We understand the anger in you, and on our own part as governors, we are also angry because the South-South zone is a very important part of this nation.

“There is no doubt that we the governors also feel insulted and we feel very sad and touched at what has happened.

“We felt it was necessary to consult with you as critical stakeholders because if we had acted on the information without consulting you, that would have added to the insult already meted to us.

“Together we call for a public apology because the meeting was not called at our instance; it was called at the instance of the Presidency.

“Some of us didn’t sleep trying to put things in order to make this meeting a reality.

“We will convey this message to the Chief of Staff to the President that as a region we deserve a public apology, particularly to our traditional rulers and opinion leaders and also to the Governors that you voted into office.

“This is the least we expect before this meeting can be reconvened,” Okowa stated.

The police during the sitting of Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Tuesday said a petitioner, Nzube Obiechina who lost her two-month pregnancy in police detention is a sister to an alleged notorious kidnapper, Evans.

During cross-examination, Legal Officer, Intelligence Response Team, Nosa Uhumwango picked faults in the testimony of Mrs Obiechina, saying there are contradictions in her statement and her testimonies.

Uhumwango said Obiechina who is a school teacher was arrested in 2017 because her phone number and that of her husband were allegedly used by the notorious alleged kidnapper, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, popularly known as Evans, to make contact with the family of a kidnap victim to collect $1million ransom.

The schoolteacher and her husband, Ogechukwu, had first appeared on October 31 before the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry probing cases of rights violations by men of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad.

Obiechina had told the panel how she was arrested by SARS, detained, and tortured during which she lost her two-month pregnancy.

But during Tuesday’s (today) sitting, the police legal counsel informed the judicial panel that Obiechina was Evans’ sister.

See the conversation during the cross-examination below:

Legal Officer IRT: Do you know why you were arrested?

Obechina: No

Legal Officer IRT: Are you related to Evans’

Obiechina: Who is Evans?

Legal Officer IRT: The popular Evans.

Obiechina then asked for the full name of Evans and she was told. She, thereafter, admitted that the person identified as her brother. She also admitted the person was arrested for kidnapping.

While explaining the connection between Evans and the woman to the panel, the lawyer said, “Evans was arrested because of the invitation of Mrs Obiechina who led the (police) team to arrest Evans. It was her who led us to Evans. We kept her for five days and that was why we were able to arrest Evans.”

The lawyer, Uhumwango then asked Obiechina: “Are you aware that one Umeh Francis was kidnapped sometime in 2016 and a ransom of $1m was collected and the said Umeh reported the case to the police?”

In response, the schoolteacher said, “I am not aware.”

Uhumwango told the panel that the police traced three phone numbers used by Evans in the operation and collection of the $1m ransom and the phone numbers of the couple – Mr and Mrs Obiechina were two of the three numbers.

The panel later adjourned the case till December 8 for the adoption of summons.

Watch the full video of the panel of inquiry below…

Channels

Violence erupted on Tuesday morning around Festac, Awumo Odofin, Coker to Mile 2 axis of Apapa and Oshodi Expressway following a clash between commercial motorcyclists and Lagos Task Force Officers.

According to eyewitnesses, the task force officers were faced with serious opposition after they allegedly went to arrest the Okada riders to seize their bikes. This led to chaos in the area.

The angry motorcyclists created bonfires on the express, which has led to traffic on the express en route Mile2.

Road users are advised to beware of the area and alternative route.

The Nigeria Police Force has asked the judicial panel of inquiry for more time to study cases of alleged brutality in Abuja.

Counsel to the police, James Idachaba, made the call on Tuesday during the resumption of sitting in the nation’s capital.

“I have listened and we will need time to enable me go through some of the processes that are already in the position of the police, if need be because our purpose here is to assist this panel or the commission as it were, to attain the objective of the work of this panel,” he said.

On his part, the brother to a victim of police brutality, Confidence Leera, narrated how an Assistant Superintendent of Police, approached him and demanded the sum of N3million as the balance payment to be made.

Leera who explained that the incident occurred in September 2019, said the police officer wanted to use the money to settle his boss in Abuja over his brother who has been missing for the past one year.

“On September 14, 2019, the ASP Victor Diagbor met me demanding N3million of a balance I was supposed to pay that he wanted to settle his oga in Abuja with the N3million,” he said

“The Edward he arrested said he doesn’t have the N3million. But since he was disturbing that he wanted to go back to Akwa Ibom, Edward now transferred N20,000. All the letters we have been sending to the IGP, IGP has not said anything.”

After listening to both parties, the Chairman of the panel, Justice Suleiman Galadima, adjourned the sitting to November 19 for further hearing.

“The matter is hereby adjourned to November 19, 2020 for continuation. It is also ordered that the victim be produced on that date,” he said.

Hundreds of policemen barricaded The Shrine at Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos, in a deft move to prevent the launch of the Movement of the People (MOP), a socialist political movement by Seun Kuti, a scion of the late Afro Beat Legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, and several other activists.

Following a lock-up of The Shrine by its management on the order of the police, Seun Kuti and the other activists regrouped and held a press conference at the Kalakuta Museum, also in Ikeja, to announce the emergence of the new political movement.

Announcing the emergence of the movement, Seun Kuti displayed and read out a copy of a letter from the police authorities in Lagos stopping what was termed a town hall meeting at The Shrine, saying that the activists did not see the police action as a defeat, as it added more fuel to the struggle for the emancipation of the masses.

It would be recalled the late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti in 1979 formed the Movement of the People (MOP) as a political party during the return to civilian administration, but due to his numerous face-offs with the Federal Government, the organisation was not registered by the electoral agency then.

Some of the groups that were expected at the event before the police onslaught at The Shrine on Tuesday morning included the Nigerian Resistance Movement (NRM), Socialist Vanguard Tendency ISVT), Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM), Movement for Socialist Alternative (MSA), Joint Action Front (JAF), Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) and the National Conscience Party (NCP).

Others are Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN), Pan-Afrikan, Consciousness Renaissance (PACOR), Socialist Labour (SL), Alliance for the Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond, (ASCAB), Radical Agenda Movement in the Nigerian Bar Association (RAMINBA), Campaign for Workers’ Alternative (CWA), #EndSARS Base and African Action Congress (AAC).

Describing the MOP as an amalgam of social democrats in the country, Seun Kuti, the Convener of the Nigerian Resistance Movement, said: “We are all Pan-African socialists. The movement will bring about the launching of the emancipation of the Nigerian people. Police action cannot stop the meeting of the people. The movement is an alliance. We will continue to meet and see how we will take it forward.

“If the Government does not give chance for a peaceful change, it will be the cause of a violent change that will consume them. It is our duty to align with the organisations of the people to show that we will not allow things to continue the way they are.”

“The MOP is the political statement of Fela and they refused to register the party. This is a rebirth of that movement. It cannot survive without the support of the middle class.

“This is the beginning of a democratic process. We have several groups, including two political parties. We are bringing together all pro-masses organisations. It is an independent movement to bring about real people’s party. We have been deliberating with several other youth groups.

“The first thing is to be registered in the mind and conscience of the people. The ruling elites have corrupted the whole political process in the nation.

“It is important that we realise that the president and the governors cannot save Nigeria. Only the people can save Nigeria. Any party that will bring about the true potential of the people will have to dialogue with the people.

“The MOP is not yet a political party. It is part of a political process that will lead to the emergence of the pro-masses political party. When the party emerges, we will vie for every political position. National development starts from dialoguing with the people.

“What is emerging is driven by the yearnings of the people. It is revolutionary. People do not want to hear the word ‘revolution’. But, we are bringing about a total change. We want to do the bidding of the Nigerian people.