04042021 - Tension as gunmen kill Miyetti Allah leaders in Nassarawa

SUNDAY VANGUARD, APRIL 4, 2021, PAGE 19
I was wrongfully
dismissed from
the police
…policeman begs Buhari, IGP
Adamu, PSC for justice, 14 years on
By Ozioruva Aliu
In 2008, about 14 years ago, Alfred
Eremen, from Ekpoma, Esan West
local government area of Edo State,
then a corporal in the Nigeria Police, was
unjustly dismissed alongside two others for
alleged extortion, but while the two other
colleagues have been reinstated and now
wear the Inspector rank, his case has been
abandoned.
He said the officer who led their team
then on the Federal Highway Patrol has
retired from service.
Eremen said as of today, he would have
been 29 years as a police officer and that,
since his wrongful dismissal, he has been
living from hand to mouth doing menial
jobs to keep his family together.
He called on President Muhammadu
Buhari, Inspector General of Police Adamu
Muhammed and the Police Service
Commission (PSC) to look into his case,
reinstate him and pay him all his
emoluments and deserved promotions.
Narrating his ordeal, he told Sunday
Vanguard that they were subjected to orderly
room trial at the Force Headquarters in
2008 and discharged only for them to
thereafter receive dismissal message and
then their conviction backdated to 2006. His
story:
How it happened
“My name is Eremen Alfred with Force
Number 193849. On the 17th of June 2007,
I was scheduled for morning duty together
with my colleagues along Benin – Ore - Lagos
Road as members of the Federal Highway
Patrol team.
“And it happened on that day in question
that our patrol Jeep with registration
number PF 689 HQ was not in good
condition and it was under repair.
“This made us to hire a vehicle from Benin
to Okada village where we had our duty
point instead of joining public vehicles, an
act which is not proper and unsafe since we
were carrying loaded firearms.
“At that time, there was a standing order
by then-commissioner of police that no
reason whatsoever will prevent Federal
Highway Patrol men from being on their
duty posts and, if found absent, the team as
a whole will be dismissed from the force.
“It was in the light of this directive that we
hired a vehicle to convey us to our duty post.
“We arrived at our duty post along
Benin, Ore Lagos Road at Okada
Village just at about 10:13 am.
“Before we went to start work we
handed over our personal money,
N7, 645, to our ASP Augustine
Asekhamien for safe keeping and
an entry was made to that effect
according to ownership.
“It was not up to 10 minutes of
our handing over this money
to our ASP that we saw
three plain vehicles
parked at our back
right in place of our
duty post and the
occupants now
came down from
their vehicles to us
and introduced
themselves as
IGP Monitoring
Unit from Force
Headquarters
Abuja.
“This team
was led by one
SP. Isa Danladi
from Force CID
Abuja.
“They asked us
to come for
searching which we
did and after
searching us, they
did not find anything
in our pockets.
“They entered their vehicles and, as they
were about to leave, one of the inspectors
named Sylvester Onuchukwu, now ASP,
sighted a big traveling bag that was kept by
the road side and owned by our ASP
Augustine Asekhamien, now retired.
“They now asked our (ASP) who owned
the bag and he immediately told them that
the bag belonged to him with his personal
effects and the N7, 645 that was handed over
to him by us immediately we arrived at our
duty post and an entry was made to that
effect according to ownership.
Arrest and trial
“From there, they took us to (Force CID)
Abuja for investigation. After obtaining our
statements, they put us in cell together with
some criminals.
“After spending one month and one week
inside the cell, they took us to Force Provost
Office at Headquarters for orderly room
trial. After the trial, DSP Mr. Suleiman who
tried us asked us to report back in one week
time, to come and listen to the outcome of
the orderly room trial.
“They returned us to the Force CID cell
for another one week making it one month
and two weeks we spent in the cell just
because of our personal money that was
found right inside our (ASP) big traveling
bag.
“When we got to the Provost Office on the
day of judgment, DSP Suleiman said as
follows: That after going through our
statement and the statement of the IGP
Monitoring Unit during the orderly room
trial, it was found that when they
(monitoring team) arrived at our duty post,
they did not see any of us collecting money
from any motorist and that the money they
found right inside our ASP’s bag which was
(N7, 645) was neatly arranged according to
ownership, with an entry on it.
“He also stated that the money was
‘presumed’ to have been extorted from
motorists and members of the public, saying
the presumption did not hold water as
evidence led had clearly stated otherwise.
Publication
“After that, there was a newspaper
publication of the dismissal of erring police
officers.
“The Daily Trust Newspapers that carried
the news of arrested of police officers across
the nation at that time headlined ‘17
policemen dismissed for corruption” also
enumerated the beat/location from where
such officers were arrested tried and
dismissed, and our state (Edo), beat,
command were not found in the
publication, so, we were therefore
discharged and acquitted.
“We now returned to our base in Benin
City performing our normal duty along
Benin-Ore-Lagos Road.
Dismissal
“After three weeks of our discharge and
acquittal by the orderly room trial, we
received another signal which dismissed us
from the force.
“We returned to Force Headquarter Abuja
the following morning where we met DSP
Suleiman, the Provost officer who tried us
and gave judgment in our favour and we
asked him the meaning of the signal. He
told us it was the DCP Provost who reviewed
our acquittal to conviction and dismissal.
“Meanwhile the DCP Provost summarily
awarded the punishment of dismissal on the
30/1/06 at a time the offence was not yet
committed or trial commenced; a power not
vested in any DCP in the Nigeria Police.
“The highest a DCP could do is to
recommend NCO reduction in rank. I have
written the IGP two times and the Chairman
of the Police Service Commission two times
for the redress of this injustice but up till
now no positive result, hence I decided to
seek justice from President Buhari and from
all well meaning Nigerians
“I have the orderly room proceedings with
me and the statements made by us and that
of the (IGP) monitoring team together with
the photocopy of the front page of the Daily
Trust Newspaper with the headline that 17
policemen were dismissed, their states and
locations of arrest, to present them to
whoever it may concern when the need
arises.”
Igbo man may be next Inspector-General of
Police – Ebigwei, Aka Ikenga leader
Dr. Sylvan Ebigwei (MON) is the Iyasei of Okpanam Kingdom, Delta State and President-Emeritus
of Aka Ikenga, the Igbo socio-political organisation. In this interview, he looks at the emergence of
Prof. George Obiozor as the President-General, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, the insecurity in the
country and other national issues. Excerpts:
By Tony Nwankwo
YOU are member of Ime-Obi of Oha
naeze and you just elected Prof.
George Obiozor as Ohanaeze President.
How would you react to his leadership
qualities?
The emergence of Prof. Obiozor is a diplomatic
feat for Ndigbo. Prof. Obiozor is a
god diplomat, who can now be able to continue
from where Nnia Nwodo regime
stopped. Under Nwodo regime, we were
able to advance publicity and enhance the
image of Ohanaeze, not only in Nigeria but
worldwide. We were able to attract relevance
and respectability to the institution of Ohanaeze
Ndigbo, because through Ohanaeze
we jump started the unification of Southern
Nigeria. Ohanaeze was able to bring together
PANDEF Front, Afenifere and also the
Middle Belt Forum under one fold, led by
EK Clark and Bitrus Pogu and Ayo Adebanjo
and Nnia Nwodo. Nnia Nwodo is no
longer the President, but he has now been
appointed the Director-General of Southern
and Middle Belt Forum, so he is still
very relevant there. So, what Obiozor is
going to do now, which some of us have advised
him to do, is to use diplomacy again
to pursue the course of Ndigbo in Nigeria,
not war. You can’t win anything by war or
force of arms. To use diplomacy to make
sure there is equity and balancing in all the
*Ebigwei
parts of this country. And also to pursue the
issue of restructuring of the country, devolution
of powers and also the issue of fiscal
federalism.
How do you react to the recent top security
appointments announced by this government?
I strongly believe that the security situation
in this country is going to improve with
the crack team recently appointed by the
Commander-in-Chief. For instance, Gen.
Lucky Irabor is a well trained officer, highly
articulate and very cerebral. He knows the
tactics of handling all these Boko Haram
insurgents. And when you look at the history
of what has been happening there, when
he was Theatre Commander, Operation
Lafiya Dole, he did a lot, because he formulates
both offensive and defensive tactics that
neutralised Boko Haram. I think it was
when he left that Boko Haram started growing
wings again. I think his appointment is
a step in the right direction. But where we
have to look into is the issue of the Police.
The Nigeria Police appear to be overwhelmed
in their duties. I believe the present
Inspector General of Police has done some
good work somewhere, but the multiplicity
of criminals that invaded this country is overwhelming.
So there is no way that they Nigeria
Police can handle them except if they
start encouraging community policing and
state police, so that they can help the present
police personnel to control certain areas.
Many hoped that the President would appoint
an Igbo from the South-East as Inspector-General
of Police?
Well, the Igbo man may still emerge because
the C-in-C has not yet appointed anybody
in the position. The IGP is still there
for three months or thereabouts. But it will
be good to decentralise security situations
in the country. I think the government has
started it. Irabor is not a Fulani man, he is
a Christian, worships at Redeemed Church.
He is Igbo from Delta State. The Yoruba
has taken a slot, the Northerners have taken
another slot, so we believe that the South-
East should have the slot for the Inspector-
General of Police for equity. And if you appoint
an Easterner, an Igbo man from the
South-East, I think there will be equity, because
he is going to bring balance to the
situation. And balancing all these forces
and appointments will equally bring credibility
to the security of this country.
The insecurity in the country is so visible
you can touch it. What is the way out?
The current position of the country is very
dire. Where does one start from? The most
pressing problem now is the issue of security.
No part of this country appears to be
secured now. I can say the most secured part
of Nigeria today is the South-East, probably
due to the multitude of soldiers and policemen
drafted to the area, that has made
it to be secured. South-South is a little bit
okay, but not quite, Many areas of the South-
West, are not secured at all. The whole of
the Northern Region, all the states there are
not secured. From what we are hearing,
North-East and North-West appear to be the
most insecure areas of this country. From
ongoing reported trends as regards security,
and that has affected all facets of Nigerian
population: travelling, commerce, tourism
and development. Most of these things
are quite stunted. Its only God that can save
us from the present quagmire we are in today.
I can summarize it by saying that the
whole country is in conflict.
Herdsmen menace seems part of the
problem. Now we know some of these
herdsmen were asked to come here from
some other parts of Africa, and they have
been killing, raping and kidnapping people.
What do you say about the people who
have been terrorising Nigeria?
Calling them herdsmen, seems a beautiful
colouration to paint a very ugly and dangerous
statue. We have always had herdsmen
in this country, we have lived amongst
them, we have socialised with them.
continues on:www.vanguardngr.com