L-R: Commissioner of Police, Danjuma Aboki (5th); Representative of the Brigade Commander, Major J.A. David and other top security Officers, as well as leaders of the Concerned Mbaise Citizens Against Police Oppression on Owerri-Umuahia Road in a group photograph after the meeting.
By Tony Adibe
The Commissioner of Police in Imo State, Mr. Danjuma Aboki, has said that it was sheer robbery for security men to use intimidation and oppression to take money from people, insisting that such unprofessional conduct would be unacceptable and regrettable in the state police Command under his watch.
Commissioner Aboki spoke on the said intimidation, oppression, harassment and extortion of the Mbaise people by security operatives, especially along the Owerri-Umuahia Road, in Imo State, and indeed, all parts of Mbaise.
CP Aboki, however, said that “lack of proper supervision” by his men was the cause of the aggressive and persistent harassment, oppression and extortion of citizens by security personnel, including the military and police, along Owerri-Umuahia Road and every other place in the state, despite all repeated warnings.
NewsBitsng.com learnt that a group known as the “Concerned Citizens Of Mbaise Against Police Oppression On Owerri-Umuahia Road” had earlier planned to embark upon a massive peaceful protest across the entire Mbaise to register their anger over the manner the police and the military personnel have literally turned the people of Mbaise into ATM Machines, through aggressive and needless extortion.
“Every market day, the security personnel will relocate, mounting several security checkpoints on roads leading to the market, mainly to turn the people going to the market into an ATM Machine that will be giving out money to the security operatives. And this is very disgraceful to the image of the security institutions they represent,” a native told NewsBits.
It was gathered that the protesters were to involve simultaneously the three key Local Government Areas – Aboh, Ezinihitte and Ahiazu – as well as a few Development Centres in Mbaise that are affected by the gross misconduct of the security men.
But considering the mind-bending nature and scope of the protests by the Concerned Citizens of Mbaise Against Police Oppression on Owerri-Umuahia Road, organisers were advised to first have a meeting with the state Commissioner of Police, apparently to brief him, and avoid a situation where some miscreants might hijack the protest and turn it violent, our Reporter gathered.
The meeting in Mr. Aboki’s office was attended by the CP himself, the representative of the Brigade Commander Major. J.A. David; ACP Linus Nwaiwu (an Mbaise indigene), and other top security Officers representing their units in the affected areas, such as Mbaise and Obowo.
Addressing the meeting, the visibly disturbed Aboki was quoted to have said that what the security men were doing to the people out there was not mere extortion, but robbery. “He termed it robbery instead of extortion for any security personnel to obtain money from people through intimidation and oppression,” the leader of the Concerned Citizens of Mbaise, Comrade Wisdom Anyanwu, quoted the Commissioner told the meeting.
Anyanwu posted the outcome of the meeting with the Commissioner on their local platform. Aboki was said to have accepted responsibility and blame for the menace on Owerri-Umuahia Road while thanking “us for choosing dialogue and heeding their call,” according to Comrade Anyanwu.
The Commissioner also mentioned the Governor’s concern (apparently the state Governor Hope Uzodinma) about the planned protest, which had circulated and permeated cyberspace, Anyanwu said.
NewsBits learnt that the Commissioner vehemently condemned the checking of vehicle particulars and “people’s phones by police officers without any security alert. He was visibly concerned and sympathetic to our cause as he repeatedly cautioned his men,” Anyanwu said.
Aboki, however, assured that “they will make sure the incessant harassments and oppression by rogue Policemen and other security operatives become a thing of the past”, said Anyanwu, who added that the police boss advised against the protest but pleaded with Anyanwu and his team to always “report any police officer or security personnel found wanting whether on the road or off the road.”
To demonstrate his sincerity, Aboki gave out his direct telephone number to Anyanwu and his team, urging them to call him whenever they noticed misconduct being displayed by officers in the State. “He humbly appealed to us to suspend the protest and give them a chance to make things right,” the leader of the Concerned Mbaise Citizens Against Police Oppression on Owerri-Umuahia Road further stated in the report of the meeting.
According to him, Aboki “welcomed our proposition of an increased and strategic public enlightenment campaign against Police Oppression.” Anyanwu said that the Police Public Relations Officer in Imo State, DSP Henry Okoye, later appealed “to us to change the name of the group or pull it down to prevent more and more people from joining in solidarity towards the protest, especially after the assurances.”
Also, the representative of the Brigade Commander, Major J. A. David, in his brief remark, lauded the group for the mature move, but urged them to cancel the protest – however peaceful – to “prevent hoodlums from taking advantage of it to cause mayhem,” according to the Concerned Mbaise Citizens Against Police Oppression.
Major David also assured “us of their (Army) collaboration with the police to put an end to the criminal and embarrassing conduct of the bad ones among them,” Anyanwu said.
“The Area Commander of Aboh-Ngor Okpala also assured us of their renewed and avowed commitment to checkmate the excesses of their men and other security operatives,” said Anyanwu, who added: “Other officers took turns to make their comments – all acknowledging the veracity of our complaints and how to nip the menace in the bud”.
Earlier, leaders of the Concerned Mbaise Citizens Against Police Oppression on Owerri-Umuahia Road, Comrade Wisdom Anyanwu and Kennedy Onwunali, had detailed in a written petition all the misconduct of the security men operating in Mbaise and Obowo areas of the state, and submitted it personally to the CP.
“I therefore, on behalf of my fellow Coordinators, appeal to us on the need to suspend the protest for now and be on the watch,” Anyanwu implored his fellow coordinators for the now suspended protest.
