A coalition of 49 civil society organisations, NOPRIN, has demanded that the Enugu State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Emmanuel Ojukwu be sanctioned for authorizing the detention and arraignment of Chibuike Oramalu, a six-year old child for conspiracy and murder. The coalition also demanded that Ojukwu be made to rehabilitate the abused child for the psychological trauma he may have suffered.
The demands were contained in a petition addressed to the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Lawal Idris. Signed by Okechukwu Nwanguma, its National Coordinator, the petition described as despicable and illegal Ojukwu’s decision to detain and subsequently arraign Chibuike Oramalu.
“We are shocked that a senior police officer of the status of a commissioner heading a state command, who had served as the image maker of the Nigeria Police as the Force Public Relations Officer, and with all his exposure and years and experience in service, could be associated with such an unspeakable professional blunder,” stated NOPRIN.
Even more, repugnant, said NOPRIN, was Ojukwu’s attempt to justify his action on live television.
This, it said, injured the reputation of the Nigeria and Police Force and entitles the Police Commissioner to severe sanctions.
“We call for appropriate disciplinary action against CP Emmanuel Ojukwu for bringing the Nigeria Police to ridicule and disrepute,” demanded NOPRIN.
On 30 May Chibuike was taken into custody at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Police Headquarters, Enugu, where he was kept in the cell with adult detainees for six weeks.
Chibuike’s sad story began on 29 May at the residence of Mr. Edwin Oforma, where Chibuike’s mother, Mrs. Oramalu worked as a cleaner and house keeper.
Mrs. Oramalu had gone to church, leaving Chibuike behind with his elder brother, Ifeanyichukwu.
In her absence, her employers son, Chukwunanu Oforma, asked Chibuike and Ifeanyichukwu to tidy up his father's bedroom.
While Ifeanyichukwu was sweeping the room, Chibuike was said to have been playing on the bed when he found a Zebra double barrel gun near the bed. He picked it up and showed it to his brother Ifeanyichukwu, who asked him to return the gun immediately.
While returning the gun, Chibuike pulled the trigger in error, with the bullet piercing the glass window of the room and the wall of the next building, where it hit 12- year- old Oluebube Boniface on the chest. He died instantly.
Chibuike, Ifeanyichukwu and their mother were arrested by the police and detained. However, his mother and brother were released after a few days. Chibuike remained in detention until 13 July, when a gust of public outrage provoked by a human rights organisation, Civil Rights Realization and Advancement Network (CRRAN), forced the police to release him.
NOPRIN alleged that Chibuike’s mother was not allowed to take him on bail on the 12 July because she is a woman.
“We wonder under which law the Enugu State Command operates which disqualifies a woman from taking a person on bail.
“CP Emmanuel Ojukwu claimed that he kept the minor in “protective custody” for six weeks. But this is strange to our laws. None of our laws- the Children and Young Persons Act, the Child Rights Act, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Nigeria has ratified- provides for protective custody for minors.
“The law provides for child protection and a police cell is not one of the facilities contemplated by the law for child protection. It is atrocious to detain a child in police custody among adults,” said NOPRIN.
The Police then proceeded to instruct Mrs. Oramalu to bring her son Chibuike to the police Headquarters, where the investigative police officer (IPO) took the six-year old and Edwin Oforma, owner of the gun who had earlier reported at the Police Station, to a Magistrate’s Court.
At the court, the Police had filed a charge of conspiracy and murder against Chibuike and the gun owner. Oforma was given an additional charge of unlawful possession of a firearm.
Shocked by the development, Mrs. Oramalu put a call through to CRRAN to inform the human rights organisation. CRRAN promptly made appearance in court on behalf of Chibuike.
After listening to CRRAN’s submission, the Magistrate, Hillary Asogwa, agreed that the six-year old boy was incapable of committing murder and as such could not be remanded in prison custody, as the police had argued.
The Magistrate therefore released Chibuike Oramalu on bond to the mother and remanded the gun owner in prison for murder and unlawful possession of firearm.
