₦airaland Forum

NOPRIN is a network of 46 civil society
organisations spread across Nigeria
and committed to promoting police
accountability and respect for human
rights. It was set up in 2000 to provide
opportunity for civil society input to
police reform and the enhancement of
safety, security and justice.
NOPRIN is constrained to write you
this open letter and to use its medium
to express the utter shock of its
network members over the continued
unlawful, arbitrary and unjustifiable
detention of Chief Bonaventure Mokwe
at the Special Anti Robbery Squad
(SARS), Awkuzu, Anambra State since
August 1, 2013 despite irrefutable
evidence that the allegation over
which he was arrested and being
indefinitely detained is clearly
fabricated and malicious.
You will recall that the police arrested
Chief Bonaventure Mokwe after a
stage-managed police search of his
UPPER CLASS HOTEL in Onitsha on
August 1, 2013 and the ‘recovery’ of
incriminating objects, including two
old dry human skulls, two AK47 riffles
and some ammunition, as well as a
military cap.
The police also arrested 10 of his hotel
workers, including Mr. Justin
Nwankwo a PhD student at the
Nnamdi Azikiwe University who works
in the hotel to earn income to pay for
his academic program.
The police then proceeded to the
Anambra State Ministry of Justice,
Onitsha where Chief Mokwe’s wife-
Mrs. Nkiru Mokwe, a lawyer, works as
a Chief State Counsel and also
arrested her.
Chief Mokwe and his wife were
brought back in handcuffs, left in a
police vehicle parked opposite his
hotel and made to watch as the hotel
was pulled down to rubbles on your
orders and under your personal
supervision.
Recall that you ordered the demolition
of the hotel without any prior
investigation to ascertain the veracity
and credibility of the information you
and the police claimed to have
received that Chief Mokwe is a
‘ritualist’.
You carried out the demolition with the
aid of your security details and a large
number of Onitsha youths whose
leader has now been identified as the
kingpin in the set up plot against Chief
Mokwe.
Prior to the demolition, some police
officers had watched as a mob of
youth invaded, vandalised and robbed
several shops belonging to Chief
Mokwe's tenants in his Plaza located
beside the hotel.
In our earlier reaction to this sad
incident, we already stated and hereby
restate that your hasty ordering of the
demolition of the hotel based on
unverified allegations and under the
pretext of fighting crimes in the state
subverted the due process. It was an
affront on the rule of law and offensive
to civilised democratic governance.
We further stated that even if
investigation were to confirm the
allegations to be true, your action
would still be arbitrary, prejudicial,
reckless and unlawful because as
governor, you have no powers or
authority under any Nigerian law to
confiscate or order the demolition of
any citizen’s property without a valid
court order, unless we have to accept
that Anambra State under you has
turned into a jungle.
It is in this context that we find it
extremely saddening that eventually-
and as the Mokwes have consistently
maintained, Chief Mokwe was framed
up by some businessmen acting for
themselves and on behalf of some
powerful people in authority in
Anambra State who see him as a rival,
and whose identities have now been
fully unravelled.
We are shocked that the police
continue to hold Chief Mokwe in
unlawful and prolonged detention
despite the lack of any shred of
evidence to substantiate the allegation
against him, and despite the
unravelling of the identities of the
people involved in the frame up.
The man who lodged and planted the
incriminating objects in room 102 of
Upper Class Hotel and went away with
the room key has been identified as
one Mr. Olisa Egbuchiem who
checked into the room under the
disguised identity of John Obi . His
father is said to be in the mortuary
business for several years.
Also identified as the chief plotter is
one Mr. Ayadi Mba who contracted
Mr. Olisa Egbuchiem to plant the
incriminating objects in the room.
Many others who played various roles
in the whole set up have also been
identified.
It is worthy of note that prior to Chief
Mokwe' arrest and the demolition of
his hotel, he had written petitions to
the police and the Obi of Onitsha
alerting them of the invasion of his
Plaza/Park by some armed youths led
by the self-same Mr. Ayadi Mba . Mr.
Ayadi Mba was said to have
assaulted, injured and dispossessed
traders at the Plaza and also collected
at gun point all the money generated
from the day's business from the
Plaza caretakers.
Chief Mokwe had on several other
occasions alerted the police and
traditional authorities in the state
about persistent threats by this same
man and his gang, but no action was
taken by either the police or traditional
authorities before this frame up
leading to his current ordeal.
In all the cases of threat and attack
which Chief Mokwe reported to the
police and to the Obi of Onitsha, the
same group of youths from Umudei
village in Onitsha were involved. They
were on all ocassions led by Mr. Ayadi
Mba who also hails from Umudei
village.
Following the incessant threats,
harassment and attacks by this same
Mr. Ayadi Mba on the life and
business of Chief Mokwe, and the
failure and neglect by the police and
the Obi of Onitsha to respond to his
written complaints, he approached the
court and obtained a court order
restraining Mr. Ayadi Mba and a police
officer whom he was using to harass
drivers in his Park. The Court issued
restraining Orders which were served
on Mr. Ayadi Mba, the aforementioned
police officer and the Commissioner of
Police, Anambra. A copy of the Order
was also sent to the Obi of Onitsha
through his palace secretary, by one
Mr. Dubem Chude. With this Court
Order, Anyamelum bus drivers started
loading at Chief Mokwe's park.
Rather than being restrained by the
Court Order, Mr. Ayadi Mba became
more determined in his excesses
culminating in his hatching the frame
up plot which saw him and others
planting incriminating objects on Chief
Mokwe with the intent to use the
police to eliminate him in custody.
Despite several petitions by Chief
Mokwe's lawyers informing the Police
authorities in Anambra about the
criminal activities of Mr. Ayadi Mba
and his cohorts, and linking them with
the planting of the objects at the hotel,
the police are yet to arrest them or
commence investigations into the
complaints against them.
Dear Governor Obi, it is over three
months now since a man who is
entitled, under the due process of the
law, to be presumed innocent, has
been held in police custody without
being charged to court and without
any court order warranting his
continued detention. And this is even
despite the fact that his innocence
has been established.
In their defence in the suit filed by
Chief Mokwe at an Onitsha High Court
for the enforcement of his fundamental
human rights, police tendered written
Statements credited to Chief Mokwe
and his co-detained workers
implicating them. However, they
collectively disown all the statements
credited to them as they are outright
fabrications.
The desperation to nail Chief Mokwe is
illustrated by this narrative by Chief
Mokwe himself: 'Few days after I was
sent to Awkuzu SARS, I was called up
one morning along with a team of
policemen who took me to Nkwelle
Ezunaka Area to an expanse of land
that was fenced, mistakenly believed
to belong to me and an old decayed
dead body covered with brand new
waterproof was exhumed inside the
fenced land. Depth of the grave was
shovel length. The intention of the
plotters was to place the dead body
on any of my lands but I thank God
that fortunately they placed it on
another person’s land. My picture was
taken with the body. The owner of the
very land was not contacted for any
information whatsoever. The person
that lodged in the Room 102, Mr. Olisa
Egbuchiem knows the source of all
these dead body and old human
skulls.'
We understand that part of the original
plan was to eliminate Chief Mokwe in
police custody and then malign him in
death with the false allegation of being
a ‘ritualist’; this will create the leeway
for the masterminds of the evil plot to
take over his property. However, this
plot was foiled by the early alert sent
out by NOPRIN and others.
Seriously concerned about the
condition and safety of Chief Mokwe in
SARS custody, NOPRIN made a
telephone call to the O/C SARS, Awka-
CSP Nwafor who assured that Chief
Mokwe was alive and well. NOPRIN
later sent communications to the
Inspector General of Police pointing
out the illegality of the actions of
Governor Obi and the police in
Anambra. We have not received any
further feedback after the IGP
forwarded NOPRIN's petition to the CP
Anambra.
We are also informed that the reason
the police have been unable to charge
Chief Mokwe to court is because they
found no evidence to prosecute him.
They found out the truth about this
whole shocking episode.
However, we are further informed that
there is a concern that if Chief Mokwe
is released, he will reveal the shocking
details of how he was framed up and
all those involved, thus highlighting
the lack of any justification for, and the
irrationality of, Governor Obi’s role in
this scandalous episode.
To save Governor Obi this
embarrassment, it has therefore been
deemed necessary that Chief Mokwe
has to be continually held in unlawful
custody. The liberty and dignity of an
innocent man have to be sacrificed on
the altar of Governor Obi's personal
ego and the consideration of his self
preservation.
We are informed that in furtherance of
this higher consideration of Governor
Obi’s self-preservation and to save
him a self-inflicted embarrassment,
the police are under pressure to frame
charges against Chief Mokwe, arraign
and have him remanded in prison
custody. The scheme is to consign
him to rot for a longer period in
custody- perhaps until Governor Obi
leaves office, so that Chief Mokwe will
not have the opportunity and space to
reveal the truth and to pursue a legal
action against the Governor for his
illegal, criminal and barbaric action of
demolition of his property.
It has become necessary that the
police disclose the identity of the
person who gave them information
about the human skulls and other
incriminating objects purportedly
found in Chief Mokwe’s hotel. It is also
necessary that the police disclose
those behind the burying of a dead
body on a piece of and mistaken to
belong to Chief Mokwe.
It is an unjustifiable act of wickedness
to continue to detain a man more than
three months after he was arrested
over a fantom crime. Why should
people in authority partake in or
acquiesce to punishing a man
unjustly? Why should a man's
business be destroyed to settle
scores? Why should a whole family,
dependants and employees be denied
the presence and responsibilities of
their bread winner and employer?
Dear Governor Obi, NOPRIN challenges
you to demonstrate courage to face
the truth and allow justice to prevail in
this matter. Chief Mokwe should be
released without further delay and the
injustice of the unjustified demolition
and/or confiscation of his property
redressed.
The Nigeria Police and Governor Peter
Obi must, as the law requires of them
in such circumstance, apologise to
and compensate Chief Bonaventure
Mokwe for unlawfully detaining him,
violating his human dignity and
destroying his means of livelihood.
We call for the arrest and prosecution
of all those found to be responsible for
or involved in this wicked act of frame
up and causing untold suffering to an
innocent man.
Okechukwu Nwanguma
Program Coordinator
NOPRIN
08064974531

E be things!!!

CrushedHeart:
E be things!!!

You saw the link in the other post?

ethicallyright:
You saw the link in the other post?

Yes

ethicallyright:
You saw the link in the other post?

yup

Peter Obi cannot keep quite. His hands seem to be stained with this matter.