A United States of America-based Nigerian, Tochukwu Ukazu, who recently returned to Nigeria to visit his mother, has narrated how operatives of Imo State Police Command assaulted him, corked their rifles, and threatened to shoot him in the presence of his hysterical wife and four-year-old son because their driver’s particulars have “expired medical”.
To get justices, the returnee would later seek the intervention of the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre.
The policemen not only allegedly threatened to execute Ukazu, but also marched him to a Point of Sale operator where he was forced to withdraw N100,000 and give to them before he and his family were allowed to leave.
The Executive Director of RULAAC, Okechukwu Nwanguma, has immediately stepped into the matter.
The Imo State Commissioner of Police, Aboki Danjuma, who was shocked by the behaviours of the policemen in the video, ordered their arrest and detention and further disclosed that they would face Orderly Room Trial.
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Ukazu explained that he returned to Nigeria on April 5, 2024 to visit his mother and other family members.
On April 24, 2024, he chartered a Sienna car from a transport company: Abia Voyage Limited, to take him, his wife and their four-year-old son to Asaba, the Delta State capital, from Umuahia, the Abia State capital.
According to him, on their way to Asaba, along Mbaise Road, slightly after Seven and Half, Umuoke Road, leading to Obowu Police Station in Imo State at about 9:15am, they met three policemen stopping and collecting money from every vehicle that drove past them.
He recounted: “The policemen stopped our car and demanded the driver should give them his Identity Card and vehicle particulars, which the driver provided to them.
“The officers told the driver that his medical had expired and that he should come out of the car and they would take the car to the station.
“Police Officer Number 2 came inside the car and reversed it.
“We asked him where he was taking us and he said: ‘Station.’
“We told him that we did not do anything wrong.
“The driver told them they could not take his car to the station because it was 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’s safety.
“The video is just 27 seconds.
“The rest of the things that happened after the video stopped were horrible for anybody to face at the hands of police officers.
“Police Officer Number 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 Number 1 called ‘Tallest’, who is their leader, handcuffed me, collected my phone, forced me to open my phone and deleted the video I made and also went into my phone trash to permanently delete the video so nobody would ever see 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 a tricycle to take me into the bush and execute me.
“They said I wanted to make them lose their jobs after many years in the police.
“The police officer Number 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.
“The police officer Number 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 Number 1 refused and said they would take me to PoS operator to withdraw the money.
“Police officers Number 1 and 2 entered the Sienna car with us while police officer Number 3 and a man who emerged from the bushes and were part of those collecting money, did not appear on the video, entered the tricycle they stopped earlier to take me inside the bush to PoS inside the old filling station by Seven and Half, Umuoke Road.
“I withdrew the N100,000 and gave it to them before they allowed us to go.
“The police officer Number 1 said he was letting me go because of how traumatised my son was.
“Till today my four-year-old son is still describing what happened to me.
“He touches my face and asks me if I feel okay.
“These police officers have no business in the Nigeria Police Force.
“They brutalised me, humiliated me, rough-handled me, held me and my family hostage and also against our fundamental human rights.
“I need justice.
“I used a special software and app to record this video after they deleted it permanently from my phone.”
Nwanguma said immediately after RULAAC got the information and saw the recovered video, he and his team quickly took decisive steps.
He said that RULAAC forwarded the complainant’s statement, along 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 act.
The CP asked that the complainant should see him in his office today.
Unfortunately, he was in Lagos.
Nwanguma said: “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 gave 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.”