The policemen subsequently after reportedly forcing them to accept they were members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), arraigned them on trump-up charges and dumped them at the Enugu Maximum Custodial Centre to cover up the atrocities.
A civic rights organisation, the Civil Rights Realisation and Advancement Network (CRRAN), has written to Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State demanding justice for the six members of the State Neighbourhood Watch who were tortured by some policemen who shot them in the legs while in custody.
The policemen subsequently after reportedly forcing them to accept they were members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), arraigned them on trump-up charges and dumped them at the Enugu Maximum Custodial Centre to cover up the atrocities.
On September 16, SaharaReporters reported that the Civil Rights Realisation and Advancement Network had submitted a petition to the Inspector General of Police, seeking redress for five individuals who were allegedly subjected to torture and shot in the legs by police officers in Enugu State.
The petition, signed by CRRAN President, Olu Omotayo, Esq., and dated September 16, requested the IG to take immediate action to address the situation.
The five individuals, who are members of the Neighbourhood Watch in Akpawfu community, Nkanu East Local Government Area, Enugu State, are – Sunday Nwobodo (also known as Divine Spoon), Onyeka Nnaji, Nnamdi Gabriel, Nweze Igweshi and Nwabunkeonye Nnamani.
The petition demanded the IG to also ensure their immediate release or arraignment in a court of law, should they be suspected of committing an offence.
However, the group in a petition to Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State dated October 1, but submitted to the governor's office on October 2nd, explained that shortly after their petition to Police IG, the policemen at the Octopus Tactical Squad rushed to a Magistrate Court, arraigned them and remanded in prison custody to cover-up their atrocities.
The petition is titled: "appeal justice and duty imposed on government in Nigeria by the Anti Torture Act 2017; RE: arraignment in Court of Sunday Nwobodo and five others after their torture by police at the Octopus Base, Nigeria Police Enugu."
Signed by the group's President, Olu Omotayo Esq, it explained that by virtue of Section 1, of the Anti-Torture Act 2017, responsibility is placed on every government in Nigeria to ensure that no citizen of this country is subjected to torture, therefore, urged Governor Mbah to ensure that justice is done in respect of the matter.
"We write to you in respect of the above mentioned matter Based on a petition dated 16th September 2024, addressed to the Inspector General of Police and the Commissioner of Police, Enugu State, wherein we demanded for justice in respect of this case, the Police at the Octopus Base surreptitiously took the accused persons to court without notifying their relatives.
"They were arraigned before an Enugu Magistrates Court on the 19th day of September 2024, in Charge No. MEN/638C /2024, and Charge No. MEN/ 639C/ 2024, whereupon they were subsequently remanded in prison custody. They were charged for being a member of IPOB, armed Robbery and murder.
"Some of the relations of the accused persons who later ran to court when got information that they were brought to court painted a gory picture of the accused persons who were limping from torture inflicted on them."
It added, "The relatives of the detainees further informed us that one of the detainees named Nwabunkeonye Nnamani whose condition was so bad because of his leg that was swollen due to torture was rejected by the officials of the Correctional Center on that fateful afternoon of 19th day of September 2024, and the Police has to take him back to their custody.
"We are made to understand that some of these accused persons who were members of Neighbourhood watch at Akpawfu, Nkanu East, were screened by the DSS and the Police before they became members of neighborhood Watch at Akpawfu, but surprising the police labeled them killers and IPOB members and brutally tortured them and shot them on the legs to extract confessions from them while in police detention.
"We further submit that the shooting of these persons on their legs while in police detention by the police during the course of interrogating them in order to obtain confessional statement from them amounts to torture and has no place or justification as under the Anti Torture Act.
"We therefore demand that the government and it's relevant agencies cooperate and assist the lawyers and relatives of these accused persons to ensure their right to have an independent and competent doctor of their choice to examine them pursuant to Section 6 of the Anti Torture Act.
"They should be granted access to competent doctor of their choice to examine them in view of the fact that they have gone through severe torture during police investigation.
"We further submit that no matter the gravity of any offence by any citizens of this country, no security agent has the right to shoot citizens on their legs in order to obtain confessional statement from them."