“The Will was not done yet. It devoted its middle page to the headline: “#EndSARS: UNSTOPPABLE OC AKWUZU”
“There are good and bad cops. Some good ones become bad in the line of duty and are, sometimes, consumed in their badness. DSP George Iyamu is one infamous example of a good police officer-turned-bad that a certain generation of Nigerians now only dimly remember.
He, it was, who connived with the still infamous Lawrence Anini robbery gang in the mid-nineteen eighties such that their reign of terror topped the agenda during two or so meetings of the Armed Forces Ruling Council headed by military president Ibrahim Babangida. In one such cabinet meeting at State House Dodan Barracks, Obalende in Lagos, IBB was said to have turned to Inspector General of Police, Etim Inyang, and famously asked him: “My friend, where is Lawrence Anini?”
Unmasked eventually, convicted and condemned to death as an officer on the take from robbers he sold guns for operations and tipped off criminals before police raids. Iyamu went to the stakes and was shot along with more than a dozen members of Anini’s gang by firing squad on Valentine’s Day in 1987.
Today in Nigeria, as a result of the ENDSARS youth uprising from early to mid-October, the picture of formerly good cop-turned-bad is gradually emerging. And that portrait is of none other than CSP James Nwafor, former OC Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) Akwuzu in Anambra state. It is a damning portrait.
The police in a statement shortly after the gruesome massacre claimed that only one person was killed, but after the dust raised as a result of the shooting settled, five persons were confirmed dead
More than a dozen families of victims of police brutality have stepped forward before the Anambra State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Police Brutality, Extra-Judicial Killings and Other Related Matters presided over by Hon. Justice Veronica Umeh to back up their petitions with testimonies.
According to Comrade Abdul Mahmud, human rights campaigner and lawyer present at the sitting, more than ninety percent of the 18 petitions so far are about the former police officer whose whereabouts is unknown.
Let’s consider some of them. Chijioke Iloanya was home in Ajali community in Anambra state when he told his mother he was going to a friend’s child dedication sometime in November 2012. She implored her son not to. He wouldn’t listen and so proceeded to the venue of the child dedication. They were still there when some officers from Ajali Police Station stormed and arrested everyone present including Chijioke and transferred them to SARS Akwuzu.
Testifying to the panel, Chijioke’s sister, Ms. Iloanya said inter alia: “the last time any member of the family saw Chijioke was the day my parents went to SARS office in Awkuzu. Our mum saw her son in their premises, (but) the officer in charge, James Nwafor, denied he was there. Some officers said he was bluffing and told my parents he wanted them to bring money.”
Of course, the Iloanyas could not afford the money requested by Nwafor. On the next visit, according to Chijioke’s sister, “Mr. Nwafor told my parents that he had killed my brother; he looked my father in the face and told my dad he could do nothing.” Ms. Iloanya had just turned 17.
Okwuchukwu Onyemele was a graduate of Architecture when his path crossed with Nwafor’s not in any criminal hideout but right in front of his father’s house. The architect was with his sister when Nwafor along with other SARS operatives stormed their father’s residence in Ontisha and arrested him in June 2014. Okwuchukwu was beaten and detained without access to his family or lawyer.
“While Okwuchukwu was in detention,” the petitioner said, “members of his family kept visiting SARS Awkuzu with the hope of seeing him. They were prevented by CSP James Nwafor from seeing him.” It was after several visits spanning years that “Mr Nwafor told Mr Onyemulue’s father that he killed his son.”
Another petitioner, a school proprietor, Emma Adimachukwu, told the hearing how Nwafor as Commander of SARS Akwuzu demanded for N400, 000 to feed his son, Obinna, a businessman, in their custody in 2014.
After graduating from Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka where Obinna read Business Admin, his father (the petitioner) opened a shop for him at Mount Olive Plaza in Onitsha. In Adimachukwu’s words, Obinna “travelled to India to buy clothes. On March 14, 2014, he went to Nnewi and collected $10,000 owed him by a friend and proceeded to Onitsha to take delivery of his goods that just arrived.”
Postscript: “Sobbing Father”
“My son refused to let them (the police) take the money. He fought them. So when they got to Akwuzu SARS, they killed him. When I went to see him after his friend who was smuggled out told me about it, James Nwafor (SARS boss) told his men to lock me up that I was a father to an armed robber.”
On December 20, 2020, “The Sunday Sun” newspaper adorned its front page with the chilling headline:
“INSIDE STORY OF POLICE MASSACRE OF SIX IN PORT HARCOURT”
· Victims’ relations demand justice.
“Daredevil trigger-happy officers of the Nigeria police on December 10, 2020 caused havoc in Port Harcourt, Rivers State as they shot dead six young men and left many others with bullet wounds.
The police in a statement shortly after the gruesome massacre claimed that only one person was killed, but after the dust raised as a result of the shooting settled, five persons were confirmed dead.
Trouble started when a team of policemen with a hilux van stopped a tricycle (Keke Napep)operator whose name was given as Chukwuma Nnolim, a native of Imo State, popularly called Schoolboy and demanded for N100 at Elikpokwu Odu road, Rukpokwu in Obio/Akpo Local Government Area of Rivers State.
An eye-witness who does not want to be named said that the policemen stopped Schoolboy and demanded for N100 tip (Roger), but Schoolboy was said to have pleaded with them to exercise patience as he had just resumed work, but the men were said to be in no mode to listen to pleas or reason with him and insisted that he must pay, but Schoolboy was said to have maintained his grounds.
According to the eye-witness, one of the policemen at this point lost his cool and became highly infuriated. He was said to have pulled out his gun, pointed it at Schoolboy on the throat and shot him at close range Schoolboy died on the spot.
Findings showed that the senseless killing triggered a protest as other Keke operators who saw what happened carried the dead body of Schoolboy to Rumuokoro police station where the assailant came from.
At Rumuokoro police station, a rowdy confrontation ensued as the angry Keke operators were said to have smashed the windscreens of some cars parked at the station, and the Rumuokoro police were said to have successfully dispersed the angry protesters without casualties.
But other eye-witnesses said that when the protesters left the police station, some other trigger-happy policemen went on rampage and began to spray live bullets on innocent traders at Omachi junction, a make-shift market arranged by traders after the Rumuokoro market shutdown.”
As confirmation that the troubles of the police are not limited to Nigeria, “Daily Trust” newspaper of December 17, 2020 devoted the bottom half of its front page to the report with the headline:
“SOMALIA’S OPPOSITION URGES TURKEY NOT TO SEND ARMS TO POLICE.”
“Somalia’s opposition says it has written to Turkey urging it not to send a planned shipment of weapons to a special police unit that they fear incumbent President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed could use to “hijack” forthcoming elections.
Political tensions have been high in the Horn of Africa country, stoked by opposition anger over a delay in holding the elections for both chambers of parliament.
The polls were initially planned for this month but that plan was scrapped following disagreements over the composition of the electoral board.
On Tuesday, opposition supporters marched in the capital Mogadishu denouncing the president for the delay.
In the letter addressed to Turkey’s ambassador in Somalia and seen by Reuters, opposition candidates said they had learned Turkey was planning to deliver 1,000 G3 assault rifles and 150,000 bullets to Harma’ad, a special unit in Somalia’s police, between Dec. 16 and Dec. 18.
Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame, chairman of the Wadajir (unity) party and one of the candidates who jointly wrote the letter, confirmed its authenticity to Reuters.
The candidates, the letter said, are “worried about this amount of weapons and ammunition flooding the country at this sensitive election time.
The president has already used the Harma’ad forces for coercion and rigging of regional elections, and so there is no doubt the same Harma’ad forces and the weapons from Turkey will be used to hijack the upcoming elections,” it said.
