Two top police sources in Abuja have told SaharaReporters that Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba, will soon be acting on the case of Sam Chukwu, a notorious former divisional police officer in Enugu whom the immediate past IG reinstated in the police despite the fact that Mr. Chukwu is a fugitive from the law.
Last July, days away from his retirement, then IG of Police, Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar, approved Mr. Chukwu’s reinstatement even though the former DPO had consistently ignored court summons to answer accusations that he played a role in the high-profile abduction and apparent murder of Lotachukwu (Lota) Ezeudu, a 19-year old accountancy student at the University of Nigeria (Enugu campus). Mr. Lota Ezeudu was kidnapped in September 2009, and has never been seen or heard from since.
Several suspects, including the DPO’s son, Nnaemeka Chukwu, are in detention and undergoing trial in the kidnap case. However, in February 2012, Mr. Chukwu went into hiding as prosecutors sought to charge him as well. Despite a warrant of arrest issued by Justice Afam Nwobodo of the Enugu High Court, the former DPO never showed up in court.
A top police source in Abuja told SaharaReporters that the new IG, Suleiman Abba, was in the process of investigating Sam Chukwu’s claim that a high court had cleared him of any involvement in the Lota Ezeudu case. The police officer disclosed that Mr. Chukwu made the claim when police superiors in Abuja questioned him about the circumstances of his controversial reinstatement.
SaharaReporters had exclusively reported that now retired IG Abubakar had not only reinstated Mr. Chukwu but had also promoted him as the new zonal provost at the Zone 9 headquarters of the Nigerian police based in Umuahia, the capital of Abia State. Mr. Chukwu’s appointment took effect on July 17.
His reinstatement and new raised eyebrows within police circles. One officer in Umuahia said he was baffled that the former IG would entrust an officer like Sam Chukwu, who is facing criminal charges, with responsibility for disciplining other police officers. “I hope IG Abba will reverse the decision of his predecessor,” said the officer, adding that other officers in Umuahia were uneasy about working alongside the shady former DPO.
A source at the Enugu State Ministry of Justice told SaharaReporters that police authorities in Abuja had asked whether any state high court had cleared Mr. Chukwu. “We told them that, if any judge cleared him, then he must have bribed the judge,” said the source. He added: “And he has enough money to bribe people since he owns many houses in Trans Ekulu [a suburb of Enugu] and other places. We have told the [police] authorities that Sam Chukwu is supposed to appear before Justice [Afam] Nwobodo for trial. He has not done so. If he went to another judge that he bought, that one is his business.”
The source said he and other officials in the Ministry of Justice were disappointed that the state police command had consistently claimed that they did not know Mr. Chukwu’s whereabouts. He added that prosecutors always suspected that a few top police officers in Enugu and Abuja, including the former IG, knew Mr. Chukwu’s location, but decided to shield him. He sharply criticized the former IG, Mr. Abubakar. “All our appeals to him [former IG Abubakar] to help us track down Sam Chukwu were ignored. And then he suddenly found where Chukwu was to reinstate him and give him promotion,” the source said. He added that the former IG should have communicated with the Enugu State Ministry of Justice and the parents of Lota Ezeudu if his intentions were good about recalling Mr. Chukwu.
Our police sources in Abuja revealed that IG Abba was gingered to investigate Mr. Chukwu after his attention was drawn to SaharaReporters’ exclusive report on the former DPO’s reinstatement despite his being a fugitive. “Be assured that the IG has set in motion a machinery to gather all the facts,” said the source. “Once the IG is sure that Sam Chukwu lied about being cleared by a court, he is going to act,” he assured, adding, “The IG is serious about mending the image of the police.”
If the IG fails to act, a group of activists say they plan to stage a series of protests at the zonal headquarters of the police in Umuahia to draw attention to the injustice of allowing a fugitive from justice to hold a major police post. “We plan to mobilize people from all over the southeastern states to show that we won’t accept the imposition of a man like Sam Chukwu as a senior police officer here,” said Eddie Okeke, an Enugu-based organizer. He said he was in touch with major civil society groups to protest “the impunity of retaining a man like Chukwu in the police force.”
Police and Ministry of Justice sources as well as some residents of Enugu portray Sam Chukwu as a greedy and criminal-minded officer who for years masterminded an extensive list of criminal activities, including running a kidnapping ring in Enugu State. A prosecution source told SaharaReporters that two cars belonging to Mr. Chukwu were used in the operation to kidnap Lota Ezeudu. He added that key suspects now in detention had also implicated the former DPO in the Ezeudu kidnap case as well as other cases.
Two of the suspects in the Ezeudu case, Ernest Okeke and Desmond Chinwuba, were former police officers sacked from their posts and charged in a prior kidnap and armed robbery case. A source told SaharaReporters that Mr. Chukwu arranged bail for the two arraigned officers, and took them in to live with him at the time Lota Ezeudu was kidnapped. Ernest Okeke is now in custody, but Desmond Chinwuba remains on the run. The friends, family and sympathizers of the Ezeudu family have raised a financial reward of more than $10,000 for anybody who will provide information that leads to the arrest of Mr. Chinwuba.
“Clearly, Desmond [Chinwuba] and Ernest [Okeke] were working for Sam Chukwu’s crime organization,” said a lawyer familiar with the case. He added: “That’s why he [Mr. Chukwu] has been avoiding the court like a plague.”
As SaharaReporters previously disclosed, Mr. Chukwu, who was then the DPO at Ogui police station, was in 2005 accused of ordering the execution of a young man, Chinedu Ani, at the behest of a then member of the House of Representatives U.S.A. Igwesi. An Enugu-based lawyer familiar with the case told our correspondent that Mr. Chukwu sent two police officers after two young men who had had a verbal encounter with the legislator. The policemen cornered the young men in their car and opened fire, killing one and seriously wounding the other.
The horrific daylight execution by the police, which happened near ACB Bank on Ogui Road, Enugu, sparked public protests. Then Governor Chimaraoke Nnamani of Enugu State set up a panel headed by Justice Ken Ezeike to investigate the police attack. Even though the panel submitted a report, Mr. Nnamani’s government failed to issue a white paper. An Enugu-based lawyer accused then Governor Nnamani of bowing to pressure from some top politicians from the state to shield Mr. Chukwu from blame.
In a related development, Justice Nwobodo will tomorrow continue the trial of suspects charged in the kidnap of Lota Ezeudu. “The court has set aside Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday [October 13, 14, and 15, 2014] to hear the case,” a court official said. He added that he could not tell whether Mr. Chukwu would present himself in court.