By Okechukwu Onuegbu
Awka
Anambra State Police Stakeholders Partnership Forum (PSPF), Friday, decried over increased rights violation and extrajudicial killings in the State.
The State Coordinator, PSPF, Prince Chris Azor, who disclosed this in Awka, during a meeting with the media, civil society organisations and other stakeholders to review and take position on the State of security and human rights, said the most worrisome was that the cases were kept in secrecy and levity.
"What's more worrisome is the seeming secrecy and levity with which these issues of Human Rights violations are being treated. In recent times we observed worrisome episodes of reported human rights breaches. Among them was the case of death in Awkuzu SCID annex police custody of citizen Uchenna James Okafor (male) on Thursday December, 2022.
"The incident was reported by a social justice campaigner on a Twitter handle, @Ada_mummyya. It was alleged in the tweet that Uchenna James Okafor was arrested for a case of two fighting and taken to the police station on the 23rd of December 2022. The parents of Uchenna were asked to bring the sum of N150,000.00 to bail him.
"That by Thursday, when the parents got to the station, and inquired about Uchenna, they were informed that Uchenna had died. The Spokesman of the Nigeria Police CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, in his reaction, asked the spokesman of Anambra State Police Command to look into the matter and revert to him.
"Anambra Police Command admitted the occurrence and promised to conduct an autopsy into the incident and reveal the cause of Uchenna’s death. Up till this moment nothing has been heard on the matter. Again, recently PSPF observed a case being handled by the Office of Inspector General of the Police (IGP) of the existence of a criminal ring consisting of some Police officers among others in Anambra State allegedly involved in illegal detention, extortion, kidnapping, extrajudicial killing of citizens, human organs harvesting etc."
He recalled that
Anambra State Police Stakeholders Partnership Forum (PSPF) was inaugurated on November 27, 2019, by the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), and Anambra Civil Society partners in collaboration with Anambra State Police Command under the then Commissioner of Police (CP) Mr John Abang. The inauguration and onboarding of the Committee on Police-Citizens Partnership was a huge and resounding success. We sincerely appreciate all eminent patriots that made it happen.
PSPF was one of the outcomes of the assessment conducted by RULAAC, in partnership with the NPF and support from the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) to ascertain the levels of awareness and implementation of the Anambra State Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) 2010. This intervention included capacity building for citizens, sensitization, enlightenment and establishment of the PSPF as a stakeholders’ platform to monitor compliance by the NPF with the ACJL.
PSPF aims to address the deficit in monitoring capacity within communities and to fill the gap in citizens’ awareness of the Anambra State Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) 2010 and general Police-Citizens relations.
It was established to serve as a mechanism for holding NPF personnel to account on rights violations, while growing skills and awareness to ensure prevention and reduction of such violations.
One recalls with nostalgia, while speaking at the launch, the then Anambra State Commissioner of Police, Mr. John Abang said the “PSPF is a welcome move, and the purpose of the platform is to promote interaction among stakeholders, to track, report, discuss and resolve cases and incidents in the State.”
Also speaking, the Executive Director, Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), Mr Okechukwu Nwaguma, while recalling that the PSPF was inaugurated in Anambra State on November 27, 2019, urged media, CSOs and other stakeholders never to relent in exposing extrajudicial killings and others within the State.