CSOs want new police boss to revisit Ikokwu 5 case

Chima Ikwunado4

Late Chima Ikwunado

Late Chima Ikwunado and Ikokwu Four

Okafor Ofiebor/ Port Harcourt

The Rivers State Civil Society Organisations led by the Chairman, Comrade Enefaa Georgewill has represented the case of the late Chima Ikwunado and the Ikokwu Four during a courtesy visit to the new Commissioner of Police, CP Joseph G. Mukan at the Command Headquarters.

Late Chima Ikwunado, an Auto-Mechanic and his Ikokwu Motorspareparts dealers were arrested by the Eagle Crack Squad, popularly called “Commissioner of Police Boys” under CP Mustapha Dandaura, on trumped-up charges in December last year.

They were arrested, detained and brutally tortured to own up that they were armed Robbers, while over N120,000 cash found on them were seized.

The notorious Eagle Crack Squad members tortured them for several days, inflicted life-threatening body injuries on them and in the process, Chima Ikwunado died.

His body was secretly disposed of without alerting the pregnant wife and his family despite their desperate enquires about his whereabouts.

As soon as the death of Ikwunado came to the public domain, the notorious Eagle Crack Squad Commander, SP Benson Adetuyi, allegedly forged an autopsy report claiming that the late Chima Ikwunado died of high blood sugar.

Adaugo, the late Chima Ikwunado wife (who recently put to bed a baby boy), debunked the claims by the Eagle Crack Commander that the late Chima Ikwunado had a medical history of diabetes to warrant “high blood sugar”.

The Ikokwu Five case went viral with peaceful protests by the Coalition Civil Society Organisations in state-led by Enefaa Georgewill, the Ikokwu Motorspareparts Dealers, Ohaneze Indigbo and journalists calling for justice for them. It became the high point of radio Talk Shows in Port Harcourt.

Due to the piled up pressure from members of the public with Humanrights Activists and the media as arrowheads, the case of the jailed Ikokwu Four was reviewed by the state government swung into action through the directive of Governor Nyesom Wike to the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Professor Zacheus Adango, to the Director Public Prosecution, DPP, to review the case the unlawfully jailed Ikokwu Four.

Their case files were subsequently reviewed, discharged and acquitted as Attorney General entered a no-case submission.

Police Headquarters, Abuja directed a fresh Autopsy conducted on Ikwunado in jointly by the Police Pathologist and the Ikwunado’s family Pathologist.

Unfortunately, the immediate past CP Mustapha Dandaura refused to release the result of the autopsy conducted and also refused to bring to book the officers who were the Torturers Ikwunado and Ikokwu Four.

Comrade Georgewill and members of the Civil Rights Community who welcomed the CP Mukan to the Command and the State, and pledged their cooperation.

Enefaa Georgewill used the opportunity of the visit to reel out requests that were not attended to by the immediate past CP Mustapha Dandaura, among which includes the revisit of the Ikokwu case and others that bordered on alleged flagrant abuse of human and people’s rights by the Police and other segments of the Society.

Responding, the CP promised to work with all relevant stakeholders in the State including the Civil Society groups and reiterated his commitment to serve with humility and integrity and to uphold the tenets of democratic policing, with special attention to the protection of citizens’ rights.

He equally assured them that all manner of infractions, including that of the late Chima Ikwunado and Ikokwu Four, will be addressed and appealed for calm, as he settles to deliver quality policing services to the State.

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