By Ishaya Ibrahim
Three rogue police officers who manhandled, humiliated and extorted a US returnee, Tochukwu Ukazu, have been arrested and undergoing an orderly room trial at the Imo State police command.
The Rule of Law, Accountability and Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) made the disclosure on Thursday through a statement signed by its executive director, Okechukwu Nwanguma who intervened in seeking justice for Ukazu.
Ukazu was attacked by the police officers in the presence of his wife and four-year-old child on April 24 at Mbaise road, Imo State while enroute to Delta State.
The officers had taken over the wheel of a chartered vehicle he was traveling in and threatened to ferry it to their police station on the grounds that a particular document had expired. Ukazu pulled out his phone and started recording the unfolding event.
When the officers noticed that their action was being recorded, descended on Ukazu, manhandled him, confiscated his phone and deleted the video. They then dragged him to a POS agent and forced him to withdraw N100,000 cash from his account for them.
But unknown to the police officers, Ukazu’s phone has a software that retains copies of deleted files.
Armed with that evidence, the U.S. returnee reached out to RULAAC who escalated his complaint to the Commissioner of Police of Imo State Command, Aboki Danjuma.
Aboki Danjuma, who has a reputation of dealing with rogue officers, according to RULAAC, swiftly rounded up the erring officers and commenced an orderly room trial.
See RULAAC ‘s full statement below
COMMENDATION FOR THE COMMISSIONER OF POLICE, IMO STATE POLICE COMMAND CP ABOKI DANJUMA
Mr. Tochukwu Ukazu, who lives in New York USA returned to Nigeria on April 5th 2024 to visit his mother and other family members.
On Wednesday April 24th 2024 he chartered a sienna car from a transport company called Abia voyage Ltd to take him, his wife and his 4-year-old son to Asaba, Delta State from Umuahia.
He informed me that on their way to Asaba, along Mbaise Rd slightly after seven and half and Umuoke Rd leading to Obowu police station at about 9:15am, they met three police officers stopping and collecting money from every vehicle that drove past them. They stopped their car and demanded the driver give them his ID card and vehicle particulars which the driver provided to them. ‘The officers told the driver that his medical has expired and that he should come out of the car and they will take the car to the station. Police officer no 2 came inside the car and reversed it, we asked him where he was taking us to and he said ‘station’. We told him he can’t take us to the police station because we did not do anything wrong. The driver told them they cannot take his car too to the station because it’s a company car. As the police officers continued to delay us for more than 30 minutes. I used my phone to start recording what was going on for my family safety as you can see the video is just 27 seconds. The rest of the things that happened after the video stopped were horrible for anybody to face in the hands of police officers. The police officer no 2 was the one on the driver’s side with his gun, he assaulted me, punched me on my face and head and corked his gun to shoot me. Police officer no 1 called ‘Tallest’ who is their leader, handcuffed me, collected my phone, forced me to open my phone and he deleted the video I made and also went into my phone trash to permanently delete the video so nobody will ever see the this video. While all this was going on, my wife was crying and begging them to leave me; my son was crying, shouting ‘leave my daddy’, ‘leave my daddy’. He vomited out of fear, anxiety and the brutality I was going through. At a time the police officers wanted to separate me from my family. They stopped Keke to take me inside the bush to execute me because they said I want to make them lose their job after many years in the police. The police officer no 1 ‘Tallest’ made a video of me to admit that I video-recorded them. My wife refused to let them take only me away, and insisted that the police officers should take everyone wherever they wanted to take me to. The police officer no 1 said I have to pay them N100,000 if I wanted them to let me go. I told them I didn’t have up to that amount with me but offered to pay them N50,000 cash but the police officer no 1 refused and said they will take me to POS to withdraw the money. So police officers nos 1 and 2 entered inside the sienna with us while the police officer no 3 and one other man who emerged from the bushes. He held the money they were collecting and did not appear on the video and entered the Keke they stopped earlier to take me inside the bush to POS inside the old filling station by seven and half and Umuoke Rd. I withdrew the N100,000 and gave it to them before they let us go. The police officer no 1 said he was letting me go because of how traumatized my son was. Till today my 4 years old son is still describing what happened to me and he touches my face and asks me if I feel okay. These police officers have no business in the Nigeria police force. They brutalized me, humiliated me, rough handled me, held me and my family against our fundamental human rights and me hostage. I need justice. I used a special software and app to record this video after they deleted it permanently from my phone.
Action taken by RULAAC
RULAAC forwarded the complainant with the video and photographs of the scene to the CP Imo State Police Command who promptly acknowledged the complaint, expressed sadness about it and promised to take action. The CP asked that the complainant should see him in his office today. Unfortunately, he’s in Lagos.
This morning, the AC X Squad, Imo State Police Command, on the directives of the CP, called and informed me that the officers had been identified and were before the CP. He wanted the complainant to come and identify the officers. He’s still in Lagos. But we availed him the AC’s number to call him.
Kudos to the CP Imo State Police Command. He truly does not condone indiscipline, corruption and misconduct in Imo State. On two occasions that we are aware of, he has made officers who extorted bribes from innocent people arrested by corrupt officers to refund the bribes they extorted.
We sincerely commend the CP for his professional and exemplary leadership as CP Imo.
