By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
At yesterday’s sitting, November 17, of the Anambra State Judicial Panel of Inquiry, the man who has been mentioned in all the cases – James Nwafor, was billed to appear. Families of his victims were there to look at the face of the man who has caused them so much pain. He was absent at the hearing. No reason was given for that after his summon to answer cases of extrajudical executions that were attributed to him.
Abdul Mahmud, a lawyer to some of Nwafor’s victims was at the panel to make submissions yesterday, but tweeted that Nwafor was nowhere to be found at the hall.
Another Nigerian who was at the panel to monitor proceedings, Ugwunna Ejikem also tweeted that: Also there has been no sign of James Nwafor so far. Hmmm.”
The sitting of the panel was later suspended because there were no logistics for the team to do its work.
James Nwafor was the Officer-in-Charge of Awkuzu SARS, a facility with so much notoriety in human rights violations and extrajudicial executions.
Nwafor was one of the longest serving commander of the facility. After his retirement as a police officer, he was appointed a security adviser to Governor Willie Obiano.
However, the #EndSARS protest forced the Governor to fire him, raising questions whether the Anambra government did not run a background check before appointing such a man with multiple human rights violations to his name.