Awka-based lawyer, Mr Richard Okonkwo, has called on the Nigerian Police authority to beam searchlight on the activities of a Deputy Commissioner of Police in-charge of the Anambra State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID Awka, Mr Akin Fakorade in order to bring sanity and professionalism back to the department.

 

Barrister Okonkwo, who spoke to journalists in Awka, alleged that the deputy police commissioner in-charge of the SCID has jettisoned crime prevention in the state capital and now waits for people that will bring land matters so as to make money.

Making money from land matters, he claimed, is the reason the Police officers refuse to go on transfer from Anambra because they are used for land grabbing.

 

The legal practitioner prayed the Police IG, AIG in charge of Zone-13, Ukpo, and Anambra Commissioner of Police to investigate what he termed “brazen act of corruption and human rights abuse” going on at the SCID Awka under the watch of Mr Fakorade.

 

He cited a case of his client, Mr Osita Odugwe from Umunya in Oyi Local Government Area involved in land dispute with others, saying that when allegations of terrorism and possession of firearms were reported to the SCID against his client, the Police, instead of launching investigation, abandoned their duty of investigating the matter, and instead ordered his client to stop entering the land after detaining him for seven days and he was made to pay one hundred thousand naira for bail, even when they know that the matter is before the court.

The lawyer further alleged that the head of Anambra SCID gave the other party a nod to continue work on the disputed land, with a promise of security assistance while they worked, calling on the Police authority to hold Mr Fakorade responsible for any breakdown of law and order over the matter.

 

He further cited a case involving one Mrs Christy Okoye and her co-wife, Mrs Ebele Okoye over their husband’s property, alleging that police officers at the SCID forced his client in the matter to write undertaking not to dispute the property again, after which he, Mr Fakorade, detailed three officers to work at the women’s compound and land in dispute for three days.

The lawyer also cited another land matter involving one Ifeanyi Agbasi, alleging that the Police also availed its men to a party in order to win the other.

 

Reacting to the allegations when contacted, the Anambra State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Tochukwu Ikenga, said he does not have any information on the issue and promised to make enquiry and get back to our Correspondent.

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