DPO, Colleagues Beat Up, Lock Up Female Lawyer While Seeking Bail for Client By Joe Chukindi

A female lawyer, Barr Chiamaka Nwangwu has been reportedly beaten up, stripped and locked up at 3-3 police station in Onitsha area, Anambra State by the DPO of the station, CSP Jane Mbanefo and her colleagues.
Nwangwu who recounted her ordeal in the hand of the police officers said she was at the police station on the order of a client to effect bail for his younger brother who was being detained at the police station over a misunderstanding he had with his landlord.
She stated that it was a surprise to her that she was attacked by the female DPO who kept slapping her for simply questioning the detained young man. She said Mbanefo was immediately joined by other police officers from the division who beat her to pulp, leaving her gown shrewded and her phone smashed before she was detained.
She said she was however later released after the chairman of her Bar Branch intervened, but expressed unhappiness that she was rather forced to apologise to the DPO before she was released.
"Am surprised why my Bar chairman insisted on me apologising to the DPO, even with my smashed phone and torn gown very visible for him to see.
"The DPO went ahead and dictated to me the apology which I was to write before I will be released," she added.
Reacting to her travails, a human rights group, International Human Rights and Equity Defense Foundation [I-REF] has petitioned the Inspector General of Police, Idris Abubakar to investigate the incident and ensure punishment for the erring officers to serve as a deterrent for others.
The group said it is particularly irked because several lawyers have been metted the same treatment by the female DPO.
The petition was titled incessant brutality by the men and officers of the 3-3 police station led by DPO Jane Mbanefo: a call for thorough investigation of the assault and brutality meted out to Barr Chiamaka Nwangwu by the DPO and his men and for appropriate sanctions.
Part of the petition signed by Justus Ijeoma, Executive Director of the group read, "Sir, though I-REF considers it very reprehensible that a lawyer would be treated contemptuously, the outrage expressed herein is not only that Barr Chiamaka was grievously violated.
"We are most worried because if the DPO could muster the temerity to manhandle lawyers with impunity the way CSP Jane Mbanefo and her men always do, only God knows what the hapless and helpless citizens will be going through in their hands.
"In the light of the foregoing, Sir, we call on you to direct that a thorough investigation be carried out into the alleged violent conduct of CSP Jane Mbanefo and her men at 3-3 Police Station in Anambra State.
"The investigation should be carried out by a competent, unbiased and professional team of Police officers. As a first step in this direction, Sir, the DPO and his co-travelers in this ill-fated journey of impunity should all be removed from 3-3 Police Station to forestall any form of interference while the investigation lasts."
Meanwhile attempt to get the reaction of the Anambra State police command on the incident did not yield fruit, as the public relations officer of the command, Princess Nkiru Nwode could not be reached.
DPO, Colleagues Beat Up, Lock Up Female Lawyer While Seeking Bail for Client By Joe Chukindi DPO, Colleagues Beat Up, Lock Up Female Lawyer While Seeking Bail for Client  By Joe Chukindi Reviewed by Unknown on Thursday, February 01, 2018 Rating: 5

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