RULAAC also called out the Commander of Serious Crimes Unit of the State Police Command, Supol Frank Akhabue and an Investigative Police Officer (IPO) identified Bassey for allegedly extorting N150,000 from a car dealer, Mr. Chigozie Ejimadu and his customer.
A human rights advocacy organisation, Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), has called out the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DC) Administration, DC Opara, at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Imo State Police Command for alleged unprofessional conduct and attempts to aide and pervert justice.
RULAAC also called out the Commander of Serious Crimes Unit of the State Police Command, Supol Frank Akhabue and an Investigative Police Officer (IPO) identified Bassey for allegedly extorting N150,000 from a car dealer, Mr. Chigozie Ejimadu and his customer.
The Executive Director of RULAAC, Okechukwu Nwanguma, told SaharaReporters that the organisation’s decision to call out the senior police officers followed a case involving Mr. Chigozie Ejimadu, a car dealer based in Owerri, the Imo State capital in Southeast Nigeria who informed RULAAC that he bought a white Toyota Venza car from one Mr. Uzoma Christian Obinelu on October 28.
According to Nwanguma, Ejimadu explained that Obinelu brought the car to his car stand at Ofuobi Car Dealers Association, Owerri-Aba Road in Owerri and after bargaining and verification of the car documents presented to him by Obinelu, he paid him the sum of N4.8 million for the car and Obinelu gave him the car documents.
Ejimadu said that he fixed some major faults in the car and resold it to a pharmacist based in Owerri in November.
However, a few days after he sold the car, a woman reportedly came to his office and walked around the car, which he said had been sold but was still in the shop. According to his account, he walked up to her and asked who she was and what she wanted but she said she was waiting for someone.
Ejimadu said the woman later walked into the office of the chairman of the car dealers’ association and said she had a case to report; that the white Toyota Venza car parked there was hers.
When she was asked whose name was on the car documents, she said it was her husband's.
The chairman of the car dealers’ association reportedly told her to go and sort things out with her husband as he had sold the car with documents bearing his name to a dealer who bought it from him after verifications.
Then she reportedly said she would be back with her husband but returned the following day with a strange man instead of her husband.
According to RULAAC, she and the man threatened Ejimadu until he left the premises to avoid violence.
Later on the same day, the woman returned with another strange man and again threatened Ejimadu, which prompted him to run to the Quick Intervention Unit at the Imo State Police Headquarters to file a complaint of threat to life and conduct likely to lead to the breakdown of public peace.
Nwanguma said that Ejimadu told RULAAC that the woman came back and started making trouble again. He said Ejimadu called the operatives at the Quick Intervention Unit who came and invited both of them to the station but the woman came to the station with one Mazi, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) under Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) at the State CID.
Ejimadu said after they narrated their different accounts of the matter, the Commander of the Unit told the woman that the person Ejimadu had business with was her husband and that if she had any issues about how the car was sold, she should go and sort it out with her husband, and she was allowed to go.
According to the RULAAC boss, Ejimadu said that some of the car documents given to him by Obinelu - the woman's husband, were original and that they were handed over to the pharmacist whom he sold the car to.
But some days later, the pharmacist drove the car to the market and after buying goods, he returned to where he parked the car and found that his car was missing.
The pharmacist called Ejimadu and told him what had happened, and Ejimadu advised him to inquire from people around the location where he parked the car.
Upon inquiry, he was told that some police officers came with a Toyota Sienna and towed his car away.
Ejimadu said he met with the pharmacist and they started searching for the car from one police station to another until they traced it to the state police headquarters where they found out that officers from Serious Crimes Unit of the command had towed the car there.
The pharmacist presented himself as the owner of the car at the Commander's office and after the pharmacist explained how he bought the car from Ejimadu, he (Ejimadu) confirmed the pharmacist’s statement and explained how he bought the car from Obinelu and that Obinelu’s wife was never involved throughout the transaction.
Ejimadu was said to have further explained that the documents of the car bear the name of Mr. Uzoma Christian Obinelu and that he made payment after he did the necessary verifications at the Federal Road Safety and other relevant places.
After their explanations, the Commander, Supol Frank Akhabue, asked the IPO identified as Bassey to obtain the statements of the pharmacist and Ejimadu, after which they were detained.
“The IPO whose name was given as Bassey demanded the sum of N300,000 for their 'bail' but ended up extorting the sum of N150,000 to release them,” Ejimadu was quoted as saying.
Ejimadu was further quoted as saying that the woman had falsely claimed that the car was snatched from her husband somewhere at Ikenegbu, but when she provided her husband at the next date given to them to report back, her husband admitted, upon interrogation, that he sold the car to him and also admitted that the car belonged to his wife but he sold it without her consent.
Nwanguma said that Ejimadu told RULAAC that he was asked to go and get the car key but he told the police officers that the key was with the pharmacist who bought the car from him.
According to Ejimadu’s account, IPO Bassey didn't allow him to say anything but kept asking him to shut him up.
The RULAAC’s Executive Director said, “When Ejimadu brought to RULAAC's attention the complaint of suspected conspiracy between the operatives at Serious Crimes and the woman to intimidate him, and for detaining and extorting money from him, RULAAC contacted the DC Admin, DC Opara, at the State CID.
“We informed him about the matter and requested that he intervene by looking dispassionately into the matter with a view to resolving it justly.
“When Ejimadu went to the DC's office on Monday December 11, accompanied by the chairman of his car dealers’ association, the DCP, without hearing his story, walked them out of his office.
“Our expectation was that the DCP, as a senior officer, a member of the police management team at the command, and being in a supervisory role, would have acted without bias, heard the man out and if he felt that he had no case, explain it to him, rather than simply walking him out.
“How is the DC leading by example as a senior officer in a supervisory role?
“We are appalled that the DC did not see any problem with the complaint of extortion if nothing else.
“The complainant informed us that he suspects a conspiracy between the man and his wife to use the car to fraudulently obtain money from him through false pretences.
“How come that the woman never reported a case of a stolen vehicle and immediately the buyer paid, she went straight to his shop after the man had paid for the car?
“It appears the officers at Serious Crimes Unit and the DC Admin are aiding this conspiracy to obtain money through fraudulent means.
“We believe that this type of bias in the investigation of cases and miscarriage of justice by the Officer in Charge of Serious Crimes Unit and the Deputy Commissioner of Police Administration, Imo State Police Command are contributory to destroying public trust and confidence in the police.”
Efforts to get the reaction of the Imo State Police Command failed as the State Police Public Relations Officer, Henry Okoye, did not answer several calls made to his phone number nor reply to a message sent to him.