STATEMENT AFTER FURTHER CONSULTATIONS, FOLLOWING THE FOURTH MEETING OF ANAMBRA PSPF HELD IN AWKA

ISSUED TODAY May 4, 2023.

The fourth meeting of Anambra State Police Stakeholders Partnership Forum (PSPF) was convened on Friday, March 24, 2023 to review and come up with a position on the state of security and human rights observance in Anambra State.

The meeting was facilitated by RULAAC with support from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).

In attendance were members of community based organizations and other civil society organisations, religious and traditional leaders, some survivors and family members of victims of Police abuse, representatives of government agencies, including the National Orientation Agency (NOA), the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), legal practitioners, women groups, youth, associations, the media, and other stakeholders. In all, about thirty-five (35) participants drawn from these constituencies were in attendance.

Opening remarks

Prince Chris Azor, the Coordinator of PSPF, in an opening remark welcomed participants, and took them down memory lane of the establishment of PSPF, its vision, mission and goal as well as the activities it had carried out so far since inauguration in 2019.

He acknowledged that the platform had lived up to its objectives of promoting engagement, interaction and partnership between the police and stakeholders in the State; building citizens’ capacity to monitor and report human rights violations, to hold the Police to account for their actions, and to assist the Police in effectively discharging their important constitutional mandate to serve and protect the people.

Noting that the meeting was the 4th in the series, Azor emphasized that it was convened to review current events and trends in Police-Citizens relations in Anambra State.

Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma, the Executive Director, RULAAC, set out the objectives of the meeting which were:

1. To review the state of human rights in Anambra State particularly against the backdrop of the trending serious allegations of torture, extrajudicial killings of detainees in the custody of the Rapid Response Squad (formerly, SARS), Awkuzu, and further allegation that some senior police officers in Anambra State were involved in, and profiting from, the practice of converting and stealing money and other valuables seized or recovered from crime suspects/accused persons in their custody. The Officers were also accused of executing the suspects and harvesting their organs for sale;
2. To interact with some of the victims of Police atrocities in Anambra State identified and invited for that purpose, with a view to assisting them in their pursuit of justice
3. To build evidence with which to engage the Police and police oversight agencies as well as other relevant government authorities, while pushing for impartial, exhaustive and effective investigations to ensure, accountability and justice
4. To carry out sustained and vigorous campaign for justice for victims of human rights violations by officers of Anambra State Police.
5. To engage with the government of Anambra State to ensure that they follow up on their commitment to ensure investigation of allegations of gross human rights violations by some senior Police officers in Anambra State.
6. To advocate for implementation of the report by the Anambra State Judicial Panel of Inquiry set up in the aftermath of the #EndSARS protests in October 2020. This is with a view to ensuring the payment of compensations to the victims as recommended who by the Panel. Goodwill Messages

Goodwill messages were received from representatives of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Anambra State; the National Human Rights Commission, and Civil Society organisations in the State.

In their separate goodwill messages, they welcomed stakeholders’ engagement with the Police which the platform PSPF had facilitated. They encouraged citizens to speak up and to promptly report, through the PSPF platform, cases of intimidation, harassment, arbitrary arrests, unlawful detention, extortion, torture and enforced disappearances by the Police and other security agencies. They particularly welcomed the opportunity provided for regular online engagement between the Police and stakeholders, through the platform as well as the NPF/PTF Observatory WhatsApp groups created for the various zones which have helped to promote dialogue, reporting, documentation and timely resolution of cases, in partnership with the Police.

They also emphasized the importance of building evidence which they acknowledged is important for effective advocacy needed to bring perpetrators of crime and human rights abuse to account.

They noted that evidence based advocacy, was also key to assisting poor and vulnerable victims to gain access to justice.

The representative of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) provided the Commission’s hotlines for interface with the Commission whenever necessary.

On the case of Mr. Nnamdi Emeh, the 23-year-old National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) member and IT Consultant to the RRS Awkuzu who blew the whistle on the grave allegations of extrajudicial killing and organ harvesting against the Commander RRS, Awkuzu, the PPRO Zone 13 Ukpo, and others.

Participants expressed serious concern over grave allegations that the Commander of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) CSP Patrick Agbazue, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Zone 13 Police Headquarters, Ukpo- Dunukofia, SP Nwode Nkeiruka, Inspector Harrison Akuma of the RRS and others were involved in a cartel that carries out routine arbitrary arrests, unlawful detention, torture and execution of detainees in their custody, converting and stealing their money and other valuables and harvesting their organs for sale.

Participants noted that in February 2023, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) had, following this startling revelation by the whistle blower, empaneled a team of police investigators to investigate the allegations. The accused police officers were invited to Force Headquarters and allowed to go back to their posts the same day.

The meeting observed that CSOs had called for the suspension of the officers pending the conclusion of investigation to ensure they do not interfere with investigation. This did not happen. The IGP also promised to reorganize the Anambra RRS. We are not aware that this has happened.

Participants also, noted that on 3rd March, the 26-year-old NYSC member and whistle blower Nnamdi Emeh who made the revelations against the police officers, with whom he had worked as an IT consultant, was arrested by the police in faraway Benin Republic and brought back and detained at the Force Headquarters, Abuja, after he was declared wanted for unlawful possession of firearms, money laundering and sundry crimes without giving details. CSOs have consistently called for prompt, transparent and impartial investigation and expressed concerns about the safety of Nnamdi Emeh who had been held in custody several weeks after he was arrested. Participants called on the Police to either charge him to court of release him.

It was equally observed that in late April, more than one month after he was taken into custody, the Commissioner of Police Anambra State Mr. Echeng Echeng addressed a press conference in Awka where he reeled out additional charges against Nnamdi Emeh without giving details and said that the case was now in court.

There were also reports in early march that the Investigative Panel set up by the IGP to investigate these allegations, which met in an undisclosed location, had submitted its report to the IGP after two (2) months, but the outcome of the investigation has yet to be made public up till date.

Although Police authorities in Anambra State claimed that the case is now in court, having filed charges against Nnamdi Emeh, he remains in Police custody more than two (2) months after he was arrested, and yet to be brought to court.

The meeting was of the view that even as civil society welcomes the decision of the Nigeria Police Force to eventually charge Nnamdi Emeh to court – as long as he would be accorded fair trial based on the charges brought against him by the Police, civil society equally calls on the Nigeria Police to make public the outcome of the investigation of the allegations against the accused Police officers and to also put them on trial.

Testimonies by Survivors and Victims of Police Abuse in Anambra State

During the meeting, testimonies were heard from survivors and family members of victims of police violence, arbitrary arrest, incommunicado detention and disappearances by Police and other security agencies in Anambra State.

1. Archbishop Titus Orji, a native of Uga in Aguata LGA narrated how his 22-year-old son, Jeremiah Chibuzor Orji, a student of Federal Polytechnic, Oko, was arrested on the 19th of March, 2022. He said his son was also a commercial bus driver.

He narrated how his son received a call, stepped out of the compound, and never returned again to date. He quoted some eyewitnesses who said they saw his son being forced inside a white bus by some unidentified armed men who abducted him and drove away.

After waiting for his son’s return for 24 hours to no avail, he went in search of him starting from the Police Area Command Aguata, then to Police Zone 13, Ukpo and later to the RRS Awkuzu and had not seen his son till date.

He said his missing son was never engaged in any secret cult activities before or at the time of his disappearance. His son’s friends in school also testified that he was not known to have engaged in any cult or other criminal activities.

While calling for serious intervention in Aguata LGA, Orji further shared another experience of a commercial tricycle rider who was harassed and beaten by Police officers because he refused to give them bribe, arguing that he had earlier given them in his previous trip.

2. Narrating his own ordeal, another citizen Bishop Gilbert Obinwa testified about how some armed police officers entered his house in Ekwulobia town on April 24, 2022, searched his house and ended up arresting his son. He stated that the Policemen came in two (2) vehicles, a black Sienna bus and another vehicle with which they took away his son along with his apprentice and two (2) others. Bishop Orji’s daughter who testified along with her father said she got trackers who traced her brother to a location but the police told them the location was a danger zone. Her brother is yet to be seen till date.
3. Mr. Shedrack Nwafor, a teacher living with disability, also testified about his own ordeal. He said he was a victim of unlawful detention, torture and intimidation after he was arrested by some Police officers from his work place.

According to his account, one day, while he was not at school, some Policemen came asking about his whereabouts and were told he we went out. They came back two (2) days later and met him, and accused him of being a kidnapper and a thief. Although a lawyer came to stand for him, the Police officers still detained him in a dungeon and tortured him mercilessly.

He was detained for nine (9) days. It took the intervention of Elders from his Community, who testified that he was not a criminal before he was released.

He revealed that while in detention, he witnessed people being tortured in the most inhumane manner. He said no day passed without detainees being executed and their dead bodies taken away. He broke down in tears while narrating his ordeal.

4. A member of a Youth organization, Mr. Ernest Nnoli, testified about how young people were often the targets of constant Police harassment and intimidation. He revealed that the Police work with informants to raid and arrest the Youths.

According to him, many of the victims of arrest were often extorted of various sums of money to be released, while in some cases they disappeared.

5. A woman leader in the Church, Mrs. Christiana Aguigwo shared her experience concerning the case of a young man who came home from Lagos for treatment of an ailment. He was arrested by the Police at Awka and taken to Enugwu-Ukwu. It took the intervention of her brother who is a legal practitioner for the young man to be released after several days in detention. She said this pattern of arrest was rampant in the State. RESOLUTIONS
6. After intense, exhaustive and prolonged deliberations on the issues and concerns, participants resolved to call for a fair trial for Mr. Nnamdi Emeh based on the charges brought against him by the police.
7. Participants also called on the Inspector General of Police to make public the report and findings from the investigation of the allegations against the police officers accused of organ harvesting in Anambra State and to also put them on trial if they are indicted.
8. Participants condemned the pattern of indiscriminate arrests of young persons, harassment, unlawful detention, extortion, torture and disappearances of arrested persons in Anambra State and called on victims or their relatives to report cases to the PSPF platform.
9. PSPF resolved to deepen partnership, engagement and collaboration with the Police, other security agencies and the State Government as regards safety and protection of Citizens’ rights in Anambra State
10. Participants called on Anambra residents to:

• always seek redress through the Ministry of Justice by sending petitions to the office of the Attorney general whenever their rights are infringed upon.
• take advantage of Probono services available at all NBA chapters in the State to formally file petitions to the Police command on any matter affecting their fundamental rights.
• take advantage of the presence of the National Human Rights Commission in the State to report cases of human rights violations and infringements, making use of the contacts shared at the meeting.

5. Participants called on Anambra State government to reinforce and operationalize its directive on the Attorney General to review cases of citizens’ rights violations in the State to ensure justice is served.
6. Participants also called for the activation of channels of grassroots citizens’ engagement with the traditional institutions and community leaders to enhance collaboration and partnership in creating human rights awareness, reporting human rights violations and assisting the Police in detecting and preventing crimes in the communities.

Signed:

Prince Chris Azor- Coordinator, Anambra State PSPF

Okechukwu Nwanguma – Executive Director RULAAC