Anambra AG denies advising IGP to withdraw case against Uyanwa & Co

The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Anambra state, Dr. Obianuju Nwogu has denied claims that she advised the Inspector General of Police to withdraw a criminal case against Igwe Peter Uyanwa and eight others pending at the Federal High court, Awka.

The traditional ruler of Ukwulu community in Dunukofia local government area of Anambra State was suspended by the state government on July 24, 2020 for one year over security reports and petitions against him by some of his subjects.

The suspended monarch and eight others are being prosecuted on charges of conspiracy, cybercrimes, perjury, fabrication of evidence and conducts likely to cause breach of peace in the community in the said case number FHC/AWK/C/32/20. The case was recently transferred from an Abuja Federal High Court to Awka at the request of the defendants.
An undated letter written by SP Stanley Nwodo Esq. from the commissioner of police, legal and prosecution section of the Force Intelligence and Investigative Department, Force Headquarters, Abuja and addressed to the Registrar, Federal High Court, Awka and received on September 3, 2020 claimed that the Anambra Attorney General advised the police boss to withdraw the suit.
The letter read: “I have found it convenient to withdraw the above-mentioned charge recently amended and filed with charge No FHC/Awka/C/32/2020 between Inspector General of Police vs HRM Igwe Peter Uyanwa and 8 others. The withdrawal is necessitated by the advice proffered by the Attorney-General of Anambra state to discountenance with the matter and also the directive from the Inspector General of Police having reviewed the case completely and this necessitated this letter.

It was gathered that the traditional ruler personally took the letter to a state government owned media house for advertorial publication on September 3, 2020. And the document was rejected when the management of the Anambra publishing company carried out verification of the letter and discovered that the Attorney General and the commissioner of justice did not sanction withdrawal of the case.

Nwogu, when contacted disowned the claims in the letter that she offered legal advice to the IGP to discontinue prosecuting the criminal case against Igwe Uyanwa: She said: “I did not give the Inspector General of Police (IGP) any advice. I do not know anything about that (letter)”.

The first plaintiff in the case, Prince Engr Chinedu Tagbo, while responding to the issue, said he was not surprised by the development because the suspended Ukwulu monarch had been looking for ways to scuttle the case. According to Prince Tagbo, Uyanwa has been bragging that he had settled some powerful people that would help him kill the case and make sure that they will not face any charge in court.

He said that the monarch has been using his agents to get at him to withdraw the case. Hear him: “My ordeal with police started on May 9, 2019, when CSP Joseph Nwadike ESQ., who was prosecuting Chief Peter Uyanwa in the botched criminal case with charge number FHC/AWK/C/79/19 for perjury and forgery of PDP election results documents, threatened my life on phone.

“Nwadike had been mounting pressure on me to forgive the defendants. He told me, (I have it on record) that Prince Arthur Eze after forgiving Chief Uyanwa, asked that I should do likewise in my case. The threat was since reported to the NPF-CRU but nothing has been done about it.

“Another instance was when ACP Cosmos Anyanwu ESQ., after filing the present charge in court demanded that I pay him N5,000,000 for prosecution, or in the alternative, I should collect N20,000,000 from the defendants as settlement to withdraw the matter; failure of which he would file motion of withdrawal in court.

“The motion of withdrawal was eventually filed by Anyanwu but Justice Okon Abang of Federal High Court, Abuja, struck it out by the application one Sani Bagudu, a Senior State Counsel from the office of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation.

“Now, SP Stanley Nwodo ESQ., has concocted this withdrawal barely three weeks after he filed an amended charge in court and the Commissioner of Police legal section in view of the security situation surrounding this case, sent an application to the court to forward the case file for the immediate arraignment of the Defendants in Port Harcourt by a vacation judge to forestall further threat to lives.
Efforts to get the reaction of the monarch on the denial of the Anambra attorney general in respect of the case on Sunday night proved abortive as he said he was in a meeting.