A thirteen year old boy Ngini Ifeachukwu Benjamin has narrated his ordeal in the hands of the police recently. He had plans to go to school on a Wednesday but was molested and arrested by the police who came in the wee hours of the morning to arrest his father but couldn’t find him and therefore arrested the 13-year-old boy and his younger brother.
He told journalists, “My name is Ngini Ifechukwu Benjamin and I am 13 years old. I was released from the police cell this week Monday. I don’t know why the police arrested me. I just came back from school the last two weeks Tuesday and on Wednesday by 3 am in the wee hours of the morning, they just came and took me and my younger brother.
“But they later released my brother and said I must follow them to the station. So they took me to the Area Command in Awka. I was even asking them what I did but they were telling me not to say anything. They shunned me and said that I should keep quiet and on Friday morning, they took me to Abuja.
“I was detained in Abuja Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On that Friday, they came and were writing names of people that were underaged and the ones that are getting old in the cell. So they now took our names to the DIG who requested that we should all be released.
“So on Sunday when I was returned to Anambra State again, they took me to Area Command Awka, and on Monday a lawyer came and signed a surety for my release. That was how I was set free from the Police in Abuja for no reason at all,” the minor told journalists.
Ngini Ifechukwu Benjamin’s father, Ozo Onyemazu Ngini, who is the youth leader of the Isuaniocha community told journalists of the alleged connivance of the police and a certain family in the Isuaniocha community in the Awka-North local government area to unleash terror and mayhem on youths of the community and make random arrests just because the community insisted on having a traditional ruler.
Ozo Onyemazu Ngini said, “We had raised alarm on police incessant intimidation in Isuaniocha Community led by one SUPOL Mathew who has been working for the Onyeagolu family since 2014 and we tagged him as a terrorist because he has been terrorising Isuaniocha community. But this time, we are ready to fight him to a standstill.
“We have written a lot of petitions but despite that, the Mathew-led terrorism gang came to Isuaniocha on 12th April and shot one Somadina Okafor to death when they were searching for my son Chisom Ngini. They mistakenly shot Somadina Okafor thinking that he was my son Chisom Ngini.
“The bad eggs amongst the police normally go and deceive their superior officers, presenting all manner of fallacies before them. What they are presenting to Abuja is that there is a murder and kidnap case here but the Mathew-led terrorism gang and the Onyeagolu family are the ones perpetrating evil in our community.
“We want the general public to know that there is no trouble in the Isuaniocha community. The only issue is that we want an Igwe but the Onyeagolu family is against Isuaniocha having a traditional ruler. The last time Mathew came to our community for arrests, he even arrested a minor, a 13-year-old boy and the case raised dust when they got to Abuja.
“He was asked to send the minor back. He called us and we told him that if you don’t want to bring the boy back, let him stay with you. That is one of the atrocities Mathew and the Onyeagolu family are committing in Isuaniocha.
“There is another man called Emeka Maduka who assists the police in making unlawful arrests in Isuaniocha. He was the one telling SUPOL Mathew who to arrest including women because they are paid to do that.
“The people they are claiming we murdered one Ifeanyi Anizoba and Ebuka Amuche. These people killed Angus Okoye and ran away. Since then we have not seen them. The police hierarchy should by now know that the people they sent to do the work are misleading them. Those things they tell them are total fallacies.
“Government should visit Isuaniocha and know what is actually happening. Government should from now on assist stakeholders in every community because the problem we are having now increased when one Ofobike Mkpume was deposed from his office as President-General of Isuaniocha and he went to the government to concoct all manner of lies against the community.
“We have also written to the leadership of the Anambra State Association of Town Unions (ASATU) concerning our town union crisis but we have not received any response at all.
“The police hierarchy should ensure they scrutinise the people they send to work at any point in time because they are not doing what they are asked to do.
“We have also honoured invitations from the police. We have honoured the invitation by the former PPRO Haruna Mohammed. We went there and Haruna told the PG that he should desist from such acts; that the people are intelligent. He told the PG categorically that he is issuing autocratic orders and the people won’t obey it.”
In his own narration, the Secretary Isuaniocha Youth Movement, Mr. Chukwuma Onyibo said one Festus and Tony of the Onyeagolus have allegedly been causing confusion and rancour in the community since 2014 because of their stupendous wealth. He accused the duo of chasing youths of the community into the bush since March this year and that ever since no one slept in their houses for fear of being rounded up unjustly by the police.
Onyibo said because Isuaniocha wanted a traditional ruler and PG, which the Onyeagolus vehemently kicked against, was the reason the tyrant family co-opted the police to kill, maim and arrest youths in the area, adding that the likes of Obi Cubana used his wealth to develop his community and didn’t use same to put Oba youths in police cells.
The Isuaniocha Youth secretary said rather than use wealth to intimidate, molest, harass and arrest youths unjustly in connivance with the police, the Onyeagolu family should deploy their resources to the development of the Isuaniocha community.
When contacted on the phone for his reactions regarding the allegations levelled against the police by the Isuaniocha community, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Anambra State Command of the Nigeria Police DSP Ikenga Tochi asked the journalist seeking information from him to come to his office with his evidence.
