REF CLO/ANSB/VOL 02/ 08/08/PSC//NPF/ABJ/NG.
14 Orlu Street Fegge
Onitsha
P.O. Box 14883,
Onitsha,
Anambra state,
20/08/08.
The Chairman,
Police Service Commission,
Force Headquarters,
Central Area,
Abuja.
Sir,
UPDATE ON OUR EARLIER REQUEST FOR IMMEDIATE INVESTIGATION OF THE NOW FORMER DPO, DCO’S, IPO’S AND SOME CORRUPT OFFICERS OF FEGGE ONITSHA DIVISIONAL POLICE COMMAND FOR CORRUPTION, HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AND BREACHING OF THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL DUTIES.
ANAMBRA CLO CALLS FOR PROBE AND DISCIPLINARY MEASURES ON CSP CHRIS UZOR UMEGE, THE FORMER DPO FEGGE DIVISION AND TOTAL SHAKE – UP OF THE MEN AND OFFICERS OF ONITSHA AREA COMMAND.
“Truth can be taunted but cannot be humiliated, truth can be temporarily suspended but cannot be annihilated, it can be subjected to injustice but will surely emerge with a resounding victory. The ugly part of truth for the unjust is that it can rear its ugly head when least expected. Like the chameleon, truth can move at a very slow speed but will surely get to its destination.”
The above quote aptly describes the position of the Civil Liberties Organization Anambra State Chapter and its efforts to expose the excesses of some officers and men of the Anambra State Police Command with reference to fegge police division and its former DPO, CSP Chris Uzor Umege.
Recall that the organization wrote a letter dated 24th April 2008 with Ref No CLO ANSB/VOL 04/04/08/CP/ANSC/NPF/ addressed to the CP Anambra State Command of which the Commission was copied. In the said petition, we accounted in details the various human rights abuses and corrupt practices, which was elevated to an art and a character in the division courtesy of Mr. Umege.
The Petition that was also copied to Mr. Umege not only emboldened him to gravitate into further ignoble acts but to declare total war on the executives of Anambra CLO.
TRAVAILS OF ANAMBRA CLO EXECUTIVES AND ACTIVITIES OF MR. UMEGE AS DPO FEGGE DIVISION IN RETROSPECT.
Exposing the various abuses of office and corrupt practices perpetrated at Fegge police division under Umege was not only at great risk to our lives but he became our traducer launching out all forms of disparaging verbal and written attacks on our integrity.
First on the series was the unlawful arrest, detention and arraignment in court of our Secretary, Comrade Justus Ijeoma on Wednesday 7th May 2008, Comrade Ijeoma was docked at Onitsha Magistrate court 5 on a two count trumped up charges of impersonation and conduct likely to breach public peace.
This prompted us to write a follow up petition dated 16th May 2008 forwarded to the new State Commissioner of Police Mr. Mohammed Abbas.
The second letter with reference no REF/CLO/ANSB/VOL 04/05/08/CP/ANSC/NPF was followed with a press release over the safety of our lives (see The Nation Newspaper Tuesday 20th May 2008 page 8 and Sunday Champion May 18th 2008 page 2.
Shortly after, we got a response through a phone call invitation by the Command Monitoring Unit (CMU) Awka summoning us for a written statement and substantiation of the two petitions.
It was at this moment, through our sources that we stumbled on a written comment sent by Mr. Umege to ‘A’ department as reply to the issues raised in our petition.
The comments, which we have since discovered to be the handiwork of one of Umege’s notorious charge and bail lawyer, were not only spiced with lies, half-truths and innuendos. Rather, he went ahead to prevaricate in all the points raised, pouring all manner of invectives on us. Infact, he drifted from responding to our complaints to attack the personalities of the Chairman and Secretary of Anambra CLO.
Various moves and efforts made by the OC Command Monitoring Unit Awka, CSP Elihu S Adamu and his 2i/c Yusuf A A to facilitate a round table meeting between the state executives of CLO and the then officers of Fegge division proved abortive as Mr. Umege refused to attend the meetings for two consecutive times.
We had earlier decided in the organization to leave him with his bad conscience since according to whillhelm Reich 1897 – 1957 “A bad conscience creates malignant behavior, you make someone else bad in order to free yourself from responsibility of emotional plague”.
But later events proved to us that Umege is not only a pathological / serial liar but an obdurate, intransigent and incorrigible officer whose contact with people always left a negative impact. No wonder, there was wild jubilation around Fegge metropolis and beyond when news filtered in, that he has been removed.
On 17th June 2008, our traducer Mr. Umege struck again as the former treasurer of CLO Anambra State, Comrade Simon Okpala was also arrested, detained overnight and docked on another 4 count charges. He was arrested when he visited the station to effect the bail of some under aged boys locked up in the cell by Umege’s men when they arrested over forty innocent citizens on 15th June under the guise of searching for a suspect.
Comrade Simon was charged to court after spending a night behind bars even when the police prosecutor in the division declined to prosecute him. All these were grand design orchestrated by Mr. Umege to frighten and prevent us from pursing our noble goals in the organization.
It will be proper to inform the Commission that Anambra CLO has since floored Umege in the two lawsuits. Before his Worship, AC Nwankwo Esq,the first was struck out on the grounds of incompetence on 19th June 2008 and the second withdrawn by the “borrowed” prosecutor when they discovered that they wouldn’t make any headway in the case.
(See the attached). The court also banned Mr. Umege from further arrest of any of the accused unless on the order of the court.
THE 15TH JUNE 2008 TERRORIST OPERATION OF MR. UMEGE’S MEN IN FEGGE.
The residents of Ziks Avenue, Maifulani, lafiaji and some adjourning parts of Mbonu Ojike and Port Harcourt road all in fegge will never forget 15th of June 2008 in their life time.On this day, the peace and tranquility of the area was not only shattered but tears, sorrows and blood flowed freely.
At the end of the invasion by over twenty policemen from Fegge division authorized by Mr. Umege, tales of woes and incalculable losses have been the lot of the residents since then.
Presently, the life of Mr. Gilbert Onwuka (67) has been on the edge of a precipice while Mr. Umege is now smiling in his office at Awka.
The pictures enclosed here can explain better. Refer also to The Spectator Newspaper of Vol 1 No 12 Friday July 11 – Thursday, July 17 2008 page 8 for more details.
On the day of the unfortunate incident, the earlier mentioned streets was under siege by over 20 policemen from Fegge division.
Our informed sources disclosed that there was an armed robbery attack on the previous night in which a woman was shot. CSP Umege who was in the habit of carrying out mass arrest whenever he needed quick cash sent out his men the next morning.
He allegedly ordered his men to arrest as many as possible, the overzealous officers went out in a seized Toyota bus Reg No AE 689 FGG driven by one Chukwuma to do their master’s bidding.
They combed various homes arresting anybody on sight, even passers by and innocent citizens going to church were not spared.
The policemen barged into every apartment and whisked away anybody seen by force to the cell. It was in the process that Chike Nwanneka, Chidebere and Ebuka Onwuka all of 2 Maifulani street were wounded seriously with gun butts for their effrontery to ask why they were being arrested inside their home. The family members were midway into a meeting to discuss the burial arrangement for their late mother who passed away on 27th May when this police brutality was meted on them.
The patriarch of the family, Mr. Gilbert Onwuka was also ‘designed’ by bullet wounds when one of the policemen stationed downstairs fired a shot which pierced though the window to their apartment shattering other pellets inside the room. The police on sensing the havoc they have wreaked on the Onwuka’s hurriedly took him to Ifendu hospital and took Chike and Chukwuebuka with bleeding heads to the station.
They also arrested other fellow tenants like Mr. Vincent Chukwujekwu, his wife, Ijeoma Chukwujekwu, a nursing mother with 3 month old baby (she was detained from 9am to 2pm ) Felix Eze, the caretaker of the yard, drycleaner, among others. Passerby arrested include citizen Uche Muoneke, an NYSC member, Chukwuebuka ifezue, little Nzubechukwu Ezeume etc
Mr. Chukwuebuka Ifezue confirmed to us that after dumping over forty of them in the station, the then DPO CSP Umege took charge, that he personally searched all of them, brutalized them physically with horsewhip. He also summarily labeled them criminals and vowed to deal with all of them unless they produce the culprit.
The caretaker of no 2 Maifulani street informed us that all the victims from their yard locked up were totally oblivious of any robbery incident and yet they paid a total cash of N22, 400 before they were released. Others paid some undisclosed thousands of naira before they were released while some under aged were released free when some Human Rights Activists intervened.
To show the crooked nature of Mr. Umege, the Onwuka family told us that he went back with some of his men to their apartment, broke their door (see the picture attached) and colleted the expended cartridge fired in the sitting room, they also broke the ceramic flower vase on their table and displayed it all over the floor to pose as objects used by Mr. Onwuka’s children to fight the police.
When the Mkpologwu Community (Mr. Onwuka’s home town)visited Umege in the station, he absolved his men of any complicity in the incident to the consternation of the delegation. He also brandished a different catridge from his drawer which he told them was not a police bullet and blatantly lied that his men never fired any shot
Since 15th June 2008 till now that Umege has left Fegge, neither him nor the policemen that committed this bestial act has ever visited the Onwuka’s nor done anything to offset their high rising medical bills.
Mr. Onwuka has been transferred from Ifendu Hospital where the police dumped him to White Chapel Specialist Hospital Uzodimma street Fegge for better treatment options
Hundreds of thousand naira have been spent on x-rays, ultra sound scan and other sundry medical expenses. The family has beared the brunt of all these expenses while Mr. Gilbert has been penciled down for further surgical operations after draining out accumulated pus from the plastered wounds.
Reminisces of the period of CSP Chris Uzor Umege as the DPO Fegge divisions has continued to evoke horrific feelings and cold shivers because of the various inhuman treatment meted out to people under the period.
His stay as DPO Fegge division was characterized by massive extortion, mandatory cash returns by various patrol teams, mass arrests and illegal detention. Infact, he lorded it over the division as DPO and allegedly converted the place into a personal enclave that whenever he sneezed, officers and rank and file cringed.
We can now authoritatively reveal that Mr. Umege maintained a permanent suite at Top Rank Hotel (former Bolingo hotel) Ziks Avenue Fegge for 16 months. For this alone, amount not less than N5 million was allegedly spent on hotel bills. The organization would like to know his salary structure and how he was able to foot these bills.
We continue to lament that the Nigeria Police Force still parades some termites and pollutant viruses who keep on tainting the image of the Force and dragging it into intractable ignominy.
It therefore becomes imperative for the Commission to exercise its constitutional powers in part 11 sections 6B and other relevant provision of the Nigerian Police Service Commission Act 2001 in regard to the various acts of misconduct and grave human rights violations perpetrated by Umege and his accomplices.
The State Police Command Headquarters have not deemed it necessary to write us formally on the outcome of their investigations into our previous petitions on this issue, though we heard from the grapevine that Mr. Umege is now at B department Command Headquarters Awka.
For us in the CLO, his transfer to the state headquarters is unacceptable; we view the transfer as elevation instead of punishment.
We call for a more detailed investigation and appropriate sanctions to be meted out depending on his level of culpability. He should be made to take the full responsibility for the Onwuka’s family issue as well as ensure that adequate measure of recompense & compensation is given to the family.
We also call on the Commission on the urgent need for shake up on the Officers and Rank and file at Fegge Police Station and Onitsha Area Command structure in general
The corruption virus infested into the division by Mr. Umege and his likes has already spread into other sensitive sections of various command structures in Onitsha.With the exception of the new Area Commander, various Officers and Rank and file have already overstayed in Onitsha.
It is a settled axiom in the police parlance that Onitsha is the strategic cash hub center for policemen posted to Anambra state.Some always bribe their way to remain here at all cost because of the extra cash prone opportunity for them
Our investigation at Fegge division also revealed that all those Officers who facilitated Mr. Umege’s corrupt enrichment are still very much around. The two DCOs, the Station Officer (S0) Patrol Commanders,Cobra Squad team leader Supol Abiola, Inspector Eze and others yet to be identified all with the exception of DCO1 have overstayed in the division.
Their new DPO, CSP Tafida Saleh from his antecedents is poised to work with the fear of God but there is need to ensure close monitoring.
We commend the Commission for the prompt response to our first letter and the bold step taken in restoring confidence and equity in the Force through the recent reversal of promotions of some Officers that flouted due process.
The recently released 2007 annual report of the Nigerian Police force which showed fallen standard of discipline as more Officers were involved in defaults is a clear indication that there is still much work ahead. The only way to ensure restoration of public confidence in the police is through attitudinal change, motivation and ensuring that defaulters are not allowed to escape vide culture of impunity.
The greatest judgment comes from the conscience that keeps condemning one for not speaking out against injustice, corruption and violations. We have spoken out and we therefore hope that all the salient issues raised here shall be promptly addressed.
The Chairman and Secretary of Anambra Branch of the CLO can be reached through 08035090548 and 08037114869.
Accept our Sympathies on the loss of a member of the commission; the Late Justice Ejiwunmi. May his soul rest in peace.
Signed for the CLO:
Comrade Aloy Emeka Attah Comrade Justus Ijeoma
Chairman Anambra State Branch Sec. Anambra State
CC:
The inspector General of Police
Force Headquarters
Abuja
The Minister of police Affairs
Abuja
The DG
State Security Service (SSS)
Abuja
The AIG Zone 9 Zonal Command
Umuahia
His Excellency
Mr. Peter Obi
Governor Anambra State
The Commissioner of Police
Anambra State Command Headquarters
Awka
The Chairman
Inter society for Civil Liberties & Rule of law
Anambra headquarters
The Chairman
National Human Rights Commission
Abuja
The Director
State Secretary Service
Awka
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Geneva Switzerland
The Secretary General,
Amnesty International London UK.
The Executive Director
Human Rights Watch
New York. USA.
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