By Kenneth Onuoha
365Daily- A group, Ezza-Effium Consultative Assembly (ECA), has demanded that the Ebonyi State Police Commissioner, Aliyu Garba, be transferred out of the state.
The group said the demand was due to the alleged escape of 55 out of the 66 suspects arrested over wanton killings in Effium community in Ohaukwu Local Government Area, under his watch.
It added that CP Garba should be prevailed upon by the acting Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali, to account for the 55 escapee mercenaries before his transfer out of Ebonyi State and should be probed to determine his level of involvement in the Effium crisis.
ECA further called on the Federal Government to also effect the transfer of the State Commandant of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the State Director of State Security Service, and investigate culpability in the “security sabotage” in the Effium crisis.
The group, in a press release signed by its Chairman, Mr. Aligwe Mathias Chukwuma, and Secretary, Mr. Bernard Orichi, which was made available to journalists on Friday, April 9, 2021, frowned at the statement issued by the State Police Command denying the escape of the suspects.
The suspects were arrested by the General Officer Commanding 82 Division, Enugu, Maj. Gen. Taoreen Lagbaja and his team, penultimate Saturday, during a raid at Okpoduma village in Effium community and handed over to the Police, but reportedly escaped from Police custody.
The Police, in a statement signed by the Command’s Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Loveth Odah, claimed that it had no record of a cell break or escape from its custody of either those arrested and handed over to the Police in connection to Ufiom/Ezza-Effium Community crisis, or suspect(s) involved in any other case.
“Against this backdrop, the Ezza-Effium Consultative Assembly is irked that this face saving press statement could shamelessly come from a police command, in less than 24 hours after the CP, Aliyu Garba, admitted on tape before some journalists that the Command was no longer in custody of the whole 66 suspects handed over to them by the GOC, 82 Division, Enugu, Maj. Gen Lagbaja.
“Besides the fact that CP Aliyu Garba confirmed to journalists the escape of the 55 out of 66 hired mercenaries arrested during the raid from the police custody, the State Commissioner for Internal Security and Border Peace, Chief Stanley Okoro Emegha, also did confirm the escape to journalists, and even accused security agencies of compromise in the Effium crisis.
“Yet, the Command, rather than going after the freed suspects to rearrest and parade them before journalists to douse the already tensed atmosphere, chose to dish out falsehood to the unsuspecting public in form of a rejoinder, to cover-up their complacency and compromise.
“The Command said in its statement that the escape of the 55 suspects “is a rumour unfounded, mischievous, baseless and an attempt to create panic in the minds of Ebonyians.
“Now, is the command saying that CP Aliyu Garba and Stanley Okoro Emegha who confirmed the escape to journalists, are liars, mischief makers and rumour mongers? This is one of the many questions on the lips of every sane mind, which the author of that jaundiced statement failed to address.
“More so, the claim by the Ebonyi State Police Command that the 66 suspects were not mercenaries but indigenes of Ufiom, yet admitted that some arms were recovered from them, amounts to shooting oneself on the leg.
“Assuming without conceding that the suspects were not mercenaries but indigenes of Ufiom, what were they doing with arms and charms that were recovered from them? Do the police, whose constitutional duty is to protect lives and property, have any moral justification to free anyone arrested for unlawfully bearing of arms and charms anywhere in Nigeria, not to talk of Effium where there have been persistent killings of hundreds of innocent natives and destruction of their property by hired mercenaries in the last two months?
“For the Ebonyi State Police Command to openly, boldly and hastily put up a defence on behalf of the suspects in this shameful manner, in order to justify and or cover-up the leaked freeing of 55 of them in their custody, goes to confirm our earlier stance that the security agencies, especially the Police have been badly compromised and are biased with the mission of aiding hired mercenaries who have been commissioned to annihilate our people in Effium Community.
“We, therefore, restate and insist on our earlier position that the Police authorities, under the headship of the acting Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, should prevail on CP Aliyu Garba to account for the 55 arrested hired mercenaries freed under his watch, so that they would be made to face trial for their involvement in the ongoing genocide against the peace loving people of Ezza-Effium in Effium community.
“We equally call on the acting IGP, Usman Alkali Baba to redeploy CP Aliyu from Ebonyi State within 72 hours, once he has given the account of the hired mercenaries freed under his watch.
“We implore the acting IGP to independently investigate this security sabotage, in order to ensure that every other person or group of persons that are directly or indirectly involved in this security sabotage, no matter how highly placed, are arrested and made to face the full weight of the law.”
“However, we call on Governor David Umahi, to clear his name and prove to us that he is not culpable in this evil plot to exterminate Ezza-Effium people in Effium community by ensuring that this security sabotage is not swept under the carpet.
“He should ensure that these 55 mercenaries freed by the compromised personnel of Ebonyi State Police Command, are properly accounted for, by them, by possibly parading them for the public to see.”