The Financial Secretary of the Ebonyi State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, Comrade Okenwa Uka, has called on the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to order investigation and prosecution, with appropriate sanctions, of the Officer-in-Charge of the Anti-Cultism Unit of the Enugu State Police Command, DSP Chidobe Ekeleme, for alleged corrupt practices and criminal conduct capable of tarnishing the image of the Force.
The chieftain, who is also the South East Zonal Director of De Norsemen Kclub Incorporated, raised the alarm in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, on Saturday while briefing newsmen on his encounter with the Police Officer.
Uka alleged that DSP Ekeleme had illegally thwarted his Club’s meeting in Enugu on September 6, 2019 for refusing to offer him a bribe of N2 million.
The Norseman Kclub’s convention, which was billed to hold between September 6 and 8, 2019 in Enugu, was said by Uka to have been obstructed by Ekeleme, adding that the Command was sitting on a time bomb if the “clandestine activities” of the likes of the police officer were left unchecked.
He emphasized that the growing negative reputation of the Force and the disaffection with the public was heightened by the likes of Ekeleme who continually bring shame on the noble profession.
Recall that the media on September 9, 2019 trended with the news of alleged arrest and parading of an APC Chieftain and 19 others by the Enugu State Police Command over allegations of belonging to an uncertain organisation.
Uka, during the briefing, debunked the said report and alleged that the entire episode was stage-managed by the concerned Officer and his cohorts to run down his person and his renowned organisation for refusing to compromise.
Uka emphasized that Norseman Kclub Incorporated was a legally registered social and humanitarian group well known beyond Nigeria.
He also noted that the Police and other Security agencies in Enugu were duly informed as usual in writing about the convention and the venue before the day and wondered why the Police, through Ekeleme, should invade and halt their gathering, if not for some personal sinister reasons.
Uka narrated: “We were never arrested nor paraded, but were unlawfully ill-treated, for failure to give the OC Anti-Cult, DSP Ekeleme, the sum of N2 million bribe.
“I want to put the record straight: one is that I was never arrested by the police.
“What rather happened was that one overzealous police officer by name DSP Chidobe Ekeleme, came to the venue, where we, De Norsemen Kclub Inc. members, were having our zonal convention, having finished from the public lecture session.
“He told me that the Commissioner of Police in the state wanted to see me and I went with him, only for him not to take me to the police boss, but smartly diverted me into his office.
“I thank God he did not kill me because we have records of extra-judicial killings by this same police officer.
“The records are there for anybody who cares to see.
“The whole thing was a stagemanaged brouhaha by the police, Enugu Command on Friday, September 6.
“De Norsemen Kclub is a registered organisation with Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission.
“It has its certificate of incorporation, duly signed, and the event that took members to Enugu from different parts of the world is a usual quarterly event.
“In April this year, we were in the United Arab Emirates for this same convention.
“We were in Aba, Abia State for similar conference.
“In May 2018, we were in Accra, Ghana for this same programme.
“In fact, I doubt if there is any state in the federation where we have not hosted this convention.
“In our characteristic manner, we have always written to security agencies, including the Nigeria Police, to notify them of our convention, wherever we planned it, and in some cases, they would even come to give us security.
“And in all the years we have had our conventions, there have never been any story of violence or any form of criminality.
“We usually use part of activities of the convention to reach out to the needy in our society.
“As regards this particular one, we wrote to the Nigeria Police on the 9th day of August, 2019 to notify them of this convention.
“We also wrote to the Department of States Services and we have acknowledgment letter from the DSS; we equally wrote the Nigerian Civil Defence and Security Corps.
“After writing to them, the DSS in particular invited us for interview because this security outfit seems to be better organised.
“We went and they equally agreed with us that it was a usual programme.
“They gave us a go-ahead and asked if we needed their assistance and we told them they were free to come.
“They were on ground at the convention venue.
“The Nigerian Police never invited us, but in our own bid to do a fellow up of that letter, just to ensure the Nigerian Police was carried along, I was at the Command’s headquarters in Enugu on September 2, 2019 and the Peace Committee Chairman, who works with the OC, Anti-Cult although a civilian, told me that it was important we also notify other sections of the Command and the Divisional Police Officers covering the area where the convention was to be hosted.
“That we did and went to this particular OC Ekeleme in his office and gave him a copy of the letter we did to the Police Commissioner, which receipt was acknowledged and we did tell them that ours is a registered organisation and nothing was said about it again.
“Surprisingly on Friday, September 6, 2019, at about 6:30am, this same DSP Chidobe Ekeleme came to the venue of the event, which is at De Castle Resorts and Hotels, GRA, Enugu and I was there, because I came in on Thursday, the 5th, and we went into the restaurant.
“He told me I had refused to give him the money he asked for and as a result we would not host the programme and I answered him it was not possible.
“He thereafter asked me to tell him where we got money to fund the programme.
“To me, it was a funny question and after I laughed I asked him how could he be asking an international organisation that had men of timber and calibre: Lawyers, Medical Doctors, Accountants, successful businessmen and women, diplomats, etc, where it got money to fund an event.
“Thirty minutes later, a police truck loaded with men of the Nigerian Police arrived the venue of our event and before 45 minutes, there were about seven trucks filled with policemen in the venue.
“I called him on phone and asked why he was creating tension where there is none.
“I challenged him that those policemen he brought should better have been somewhere inside Awgu and other parts of the South-East, where our people are being killed and maimed, where our women are being raped.
“But as a law abiding citizen of this country, what I did was to mobilise some leaders of the organisation and we went to the office of the Commissioner of Police, Enugu State.
“The police boss told us that he had just been transferred to Enugu five days ago and that he could only rely on information given to him by his subordinate to act.
“I brought out the letter that we had written concerning the event and showed to him.
“The police boss saw it and said his office was a continuum and that if his predecessor had acted on the letter, that he would have no choice than to abide by the action of his predecessor.
“He asked them to go and look for our letter in his office but lo and behold, the letter was looked for everywhere by some officers, including the officer who received it, but it was nowhere to be found, meaning that the DSP may have hidden or destroyed the evidence for clandestine reasons best known to him.
“This DSP is a bad image to the Nigerian police.
“His likes are the ones soiling the image of the police force.
“I call on the IGP to prosecute him and check his activities.
“He has criminal tendencies and he could have a hand in some of the killings going on in some parts of Enugu State.”
At the time of filing this report, however, the Enugu State Police Command could not be reached for reactions on the allegations as phone calls to the Command’s spokesperson, DSP Ebere Amarizu, was not picked.
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