posted February 22, 2023
Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA), on Wednesday, asked the police authorities to sack officers culpable in the heinous activities of extrajudicial killings, abduction, and extortion, amongst other unprofessional conducts recently uncovered in the state.
HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, also asked the Anambra State Government to set up an independent judicial commission of inquiry on the allegations of human organ trafficking and extra-judicial execution of persons by a cartel inside the police in Anambra.
The group said the investigation by the police won’t produce any fruit as ‘thieves can’t investigate thieves’ or rather someone can’t be a prosecutor and a judge in a case.
Force spokesman, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, in a statement on Tuesday, had said a Special Investigation Panel is investigating the allegations of extra-judicial killings, extortion, unprofessionalism, and highhandedness against Police Officers of the Anambra State Command.
The police also reassured the public that the Anambra RRS, Awkuzu, will be reorganised and sanitised and that the sanitisation will be extended to other tactical squads in the Force.
The police also said the officers fingered in the trending allegations were never arrested or detained but were summoned to the Force Headquarters for interrogation following an alarm raised by a blogger.
Commenting, HURIWA’s Onwubiko said, “The dark revelations from the police in Anambra again tell that no reform or convincing developments have occurred in the Nigeria Police Force after the EndSARS nationwide protests against police brutality and extrajudicial killings.
“It is shameful that the police which ought to protest the people are now hunters of human flesh. Very sad.
“HURIWA condemns the despicable acts and calls for a mass sack, redeployment of all the police operatives from Anambra so there’s an injection of fresh police operatives that are not contaminated by the lure for illicit money and extortion of Igbo traders who often are ready to pay so their times aren’t wasted by the police.
“Notoriously, the Anambra State Police Command is said to be very juicy just like Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano because of political patronage, side hustling such as running errands and protecting homes and individuals that are ready to pay the commissioner handsomely for the illegal guard duties.
“We call for the Anambra state government to set up an independent judicial commission of inquiry on the allegations of human organ trafficking and extra-judicial execution of persons by a cartel inside the police of Anambra state. The investigation by the police won’t produce any fruit as ‘thieves can’t investigate thieves’ or rather someone can’t be a prosecutor and a judge in a case.