Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, on Monday, called for the disbandment of the entire policing architecture in Anambra State and urged the Police Service Commission to set up a judicial panel to investigate the wide-ranging allegations of brutality, murder, kidnapping and another high-profile criminal enterprise allegedly involving the police.
HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said if found guilty, police officers who are culprits should face murder charges immediately and to forestall another national anti-police brutality protests like the #EndSARS uprising of October 2020.
HURIWA recalled that a man in a viral video Valentine Anierobi was allegedly tortured and forced to confess that he was sent by Senator Ubanesse to kidnap Dr Kingsley Emoh a Port Harcourt-based staff of Eleme petrochemical company.
HURIWA’s Onwubiko said, “We condemn the alleged police brutality and torture of this man Valentine Anierobi by the Anambra state police command linking the same PPRO that was implicated for human organ trafficking allegations and for disappearances of many Igbo youths.
“The man in the video was allegedly tortured and forced to confess that he was sent by Senator Ubanesse Igbeke to kidnap Dr Kingsley Emoh a PortHarcourt-based staff of Eleme petrochemical company. Dr Emoh has already been reportedly arrested by Force headquarters for allegedly deceiving the police into arresting the man in the video and false information against Senator Ubanesse Igbeke.”
HURIWA condemned torture and stated that torture is absolutely prohibited under the constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Covenants on civil and political Rights and all global human rights laws. HURIWA wants the Federal government to view torture as extrajudicial and therefore police officers indicted for inflicting torture must be dismissed from Service forthwith.
“The Anambra Police scandals must be investigated immediately or the IGP and President Muhammadu Buhari may be risking persistent anti-police brutality protests like EndSARS of 2020,” the statement added.