By Chidinma Omar, Owerri
The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called out the door Imo State Police Command over what it described as brazen professional misconduct and human rights abuses ranging from widespread extortion, arbitrary arrests, detention, and extrajudicial execution by the police.
HURIWA's National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko in a Press release stated he would seek National Assembly intervention over the matter as the Association proposes to petition the National Assembly Public Complaints Committee to investigate the abuses going on within the ranks and files of the Imo State Police Command even as he accuses the National Human Rights Commission of failing to in its core mandate of enforcing human rights abuses in especially in South East of Nigeria where citizens face arbitrary arrests, detention, extortion and extrajudicial execution by police
In the interim, Onwubiko urged the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kayode Egbetokun to quickly nip what he described as a widespread and rapidly spreading racket by deploying police spies to investigate unprofessional conducts and crimes by police officers in Imo State.
The HURIWA boss who was in Owerri, Imo State capital on a visit alleged that police officers now charge between N40,000 to N100, 000 before they can respond to distress calls from residents.
He further alleged that the Yuletide season which witnessed influx of visitors to the South-East you has provided a goldmine to police officers who patrol in police operational vehicles harassing young men driving exotic cars, and arbitrarily arrested such youngsters who they accuse of being internet scammers. According to him, those arrested are forced to cough out between N100, 000 to N500, 000 or tend up being framed and detained for more extortion
Onwubiko also called out the Imo State Police Commissioner of Police urging him to call to order police operatives who has set up an 'Extortion Checkpoint' near the Federal Correctional Services headquarters in Owerri Imo State where private car owners who are mostly returnees from outside of South East who are home for the Yuletide are routinely arrested and sums of money ranging from N2,000 to N20,000 extorted from them
“If the arrested car owner resists the attempt to make him/her part with the bribes to the police, they are immediately taken to the nearby State Police Command", he stated
Several calls made to the State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Henry Okoye to react to the allegations were not answered
In a related incident, the Imo Police Command says it has arrested one Amanda Uchechi Ugo for shooting a police officer, Corporal Cosmas Ugwu to death with his service pistol.
In a press statement, the PPRO, Mr Henry Okoye stated that the 23-year old young lady was arrested at the crime scene in Ezinihitte Mbaise Local Government Area Command’s Police Barracks with a pistol.
Okoye stated that the suspect on interrogation admitted shooting the deceased, alleged to be her boyfriend after an altercation.
Okoye explained that on Friday, at about 6.32pm, some policemen heard a loud gunshot precisely in the room of the deceased and proceeded to the scene, only to find Ugwu in a pool of blood, arising from the bullet injuries on his chest region.
According to him, the officer was taken to a nearby medical facility, Evergreen Hospital, where the doctor pronounced him dead, and his body was deposited at the morgue.
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