Group, citizen allege police brutality, exploitation of Enugu residents
From Lawrence Njoku, Enugu
CENTRE for the Victims of Extra-Judicial Killings and Torture (CUEKT AFRICA) a civil group based in Enugu, yesterday deplored the rising rate of police brutality and exploitation of innocent citizens.
The group also accused the police of "deliberately framing and arresting residents to extort money from them before they are set free."
According to the group, the police were known for their early morning "siege" to unsuspecting students and workers hurrying to their schools and offices, and then later in the evening on their way back home.
The police, the group went on, usually operate in commercial mini-buses, as though they are doing genuine business.
They lure unsuspecting passengers into their buses, and then take them to the police station where they are detained for trumped-up charges of "conduct likely to cause a breach of peace," or "armed robbery".
Only to release them on the payment of large sums of money, which in certain cases could be as high as N10,000."
In a petition to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Tafa Balogun, CUEKT AFRICA said it had become "the rule rather than exception for police officers to literally besiege the streets of Enugu as early as 7.30 am to unleash terror and violence on innocent law-abiding citizens going about their normal duties, on the pretence of searching for criminals."
The group identified the Area Command, Uwani, Ogui Central, and Abakaliki Road Police stations all in Enugu as the most "notorious for such acts."
"In the course of these raids, able bodied men, notably teenagers, are hounded into police vans without explanation or proper investigation, only to be granted bailed at a cost determined by the police officers and based on their assessment of the financial buoyancy of each suspect," the group alleged.
"This routine which has turned into a deadly siege has in turn created a state of tension and fear among the residents, resulting in youths taking to their heels at the sight of the police especially in the evenings, with many sustaining injuries in the process," the organisation stated.
It called on the IG to immediately call his men to order and to institute an investigations into the matter, while taking steps to compensate victims of the "nefarious acts of policemen in Enugu."
Another petitioner, Mr. Hyacienth Maduka said his 13 year-old son was knocked down by a vehicle while running away from policemen who were arresting people indiscriminately.
The policemen, he said "dumped his injured son at the Eastern Nigeria Medical Centre, Enugu and disappeared without alerting anybody as to his whereabouts."
He said it was now widely known in the city that policemen arrest people just to extort money from them.
"This singular act of police is tantamount to the infringement of the freedom of citizens who are now living in fear each night in Enugu," he said.
The State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Morrison Abe and the PPRO, Mr. Shehu Adamu could not be reached for comments on the issue yesterday, but the police boss had denied knowledge of the illicit practice by his men and asked those with evidence to report to his office for "necessary action."
