Mbu denies torture allegation by fraud suspects

The Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 2 Police Command, Joseph Mbu, has denied the allegation of torture made against him by a foreign exchange dealer, Alhaji Suleiman Yerima.

Joseph Mbu

Mbu said the allegation was an attempt by the suspect to divert attention from his group’s alleged fraudulent activities.

Yerima had alleged that Mbu instructed a Deputy Superintendent of Police, Ibrahim Dantoro, to dip his face into a bucket of water-a form of torture known as “water-boarding” used to extract confessions from terrorists.

The businessman, in a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari, had alleged that he was detained for 80 days by the police and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, along with his friend, Uwem Antia, who he said was blindfolded and beaten.

Mbu on Thursday, during a press briefing, which was attended by the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Kayode Aderanti, and his Ogun State counterpart, Valentine Ntomchukwu, said that Yerima’s allegation was diversionary.

He said the command had received three separate petitions against the syndicate consisting Yerima, Antia and Chief Reagan Edet and that investigations by the command showed that the three were fraudsters who also had cases in court.

The AIG revealed that two of the syndicate’s latest victims, who worked in banks, had lost their jobs due to the incident.

Mbu said, “I read in the papers about some people saying I ordered their torture. These are people who specialised in defrauding people. Somebody gave you N300m and asked for dollars, and the next day you disappeared. Those who borrowed from businesses have lost their capital, while those who worked in banks have lost their jobs.

“They failed to tell the press how they offered Dantoro N50m so that the matter would be swept under the carpet. We will not allow injustice.”

The Operation Commander of Legal in the Zone 2 Police Command, Chukwu Agwu, explained that the command had released the suspects to the EFCC since April, saying their allegation of torture was an afterthought.

He said, “Yerima and his group fraudulently obtained N424m from two victims with a promise to give them its dollar equivalent in February 2015. Contrary to their promise, they disappeared into thin air with the money.

“The matter was reported to the AIG Zone 2 Police Command, Lagos, where the victims revealed that the group had duped another victim of over N200m the same day, but the victim reported the case to the EFCC.”

The suspects were said to have been arrested by the EFCC due to one of the victims’ petition.

Agwu said the command, having received two petitions as well, requested their release for interrogation.

“After police interrogation, the suspects were returned to the EFCC on April 7, 2015 within the period of court order for their detention. There was no torture or infringement of the suspects’ rights or allegation of such while in our detention,” he added.

It was learnt that the police received another petition from a legal practitioner, Ayo Olubo and Co, against Yerima and members of his group, for alleged conspiracy and fraudulently obtaining $2.5m.

Agwu said the command was still investigating the case.

“Our investigation revealed that Yerima, Antia, Edet and their cohorts, are not foreign exchange dealers and do not own or operate any Bureau-de-Change. The same Yerima is being prosecuted for a similar crime at the Federal High Court since 2009. He is equally being investigated by the EFCC as an unrepentant and hardened fraudster,” he added.

Two of the alleged victims of Yerima’s group, who spoke with The PUNCH, said they had lost their jobs due to the incident.

They, however, declined to identify themselves or speak on the record “because we don’t want our chances of getting another job affected.”

“We trusted Yerima because he took us to his house and showed us pictures he had taken with people in the Presidency and television interviews he had granted. We even checked his name on the internet but he absconded with our money and betrayed us,” one of them said.

Mbu also denied reports of extra-judicial killings in the Nigeria Police Force, saying the allegations were unfounded.

Our correspondent had asked the AIG at the end of the briefing to react to the issues of extra-judicial killing in the NPF and the challenge of underfunding confronting many of the police stations in the zone.

He said in most cases, family members of suspects did not usually tell the world the whole truth.

Mbu denies torture allegation by fraud suspects

My threat worked - Mbu

The Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone 2, Joseph Mbu, says the threat he issued to kill 10 people for every policeman killed made the governorship and assembly elections to be peaceful in Lagos.

Mbu spoke on Saturday after monitoring the elections in some parts of the state with journalists.

The AIG visited the Ikeja, Agege, Alimosho, Somolu, Ogudu, Yaba, Lagos Island and Gbagada areas of Lagos State, among others.

There was no chaos or fight in all the areas as residents cheered the police team.

However, three people were arrested in the Ikeja GRA for moving around in their cars, while a passerby, who attempted recording the scene, was equally apprehended.

His Smartphone was smashed on the ground by a policeman.

At the end of the tour, Mbu lauded the courage of policemen in the state and the orderly conduct of the elections.

Asked what was responsible for the peaceful conduct of the elections, Mbu said, “Generally, people are becoming more and more mature.

“Also, the statement I made, which people misconstrued, also helped the police because people say, ‘this man has come o, and whatever he says, he means it’, and that instilled fear in them. Go and check all the places where I served, how many people have died? We don’t kill anyhow.

“But you have to instill fear so that people will have more respect for the police.

“Now we have succeeded as far as I am concerned.”

The AIG acknowledged some fracas in the Agric, Ikorodu area of the state, saying it was minor and the police were able to arrest the situation.

My threat worked - Mbu

I want to become Police IG - Controversial AIG Mbu says

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The controversial new Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone 2, Joseph Mbu, on Thursday, February 12, made an official visit to the Ogun State Police Command, which is under his zone.

Joseph Mbu

While briefing men and officers of the command, Mr. Mbu made it clear he is working hard to get to the top of the police hierarchy.

Our reporter, Dimeji Kayode-Adedeji, brings you details of the briefing.

Excerpt:

I have come here to restore hope in all of you and to blow air into you. You know when you just have a male child, you blow air into his mouth and nose so that he can be like you.

I love Nigeria Police. I love being a police officer and I’m very proud to be a police officer because only a police officer can do every other job and no other person can do a police job.

In all the laws of Nigeria, there is nowhere they do not mention a police officer. So, the whole laws empower you. But you don’t know what you are. Do you want to be like pigs who do not know the value of GOLD? It seems to me that about 60 per cent of us or 70 are trying to behave like pigs who don’t know the value of what they have.

If you love this job, the number one commandment for this job is discipline. You must be disciplined. That’s why I said don’t touch my policeman. If you shoot my policeman, I will shoot 20 of you, I will shoot a hundred of you because we are coming to you for peace. We are not coming to you to come and kill you.

You are not engaging us in gun battle. You are not armed robbers that are engaging us in gun battle. You are having communal crisis, you are politicians, we are coming to settle you and you want to kill us. I say resist. I tell you again, resist. Anybody who fires you, fire him back in self-defence. Anybody who fires you, fire him back in self-defence but don’t fire first. Anybody you see who is firing at other persons, fire him because you are trying to protect that other person because the law permits you. You are empowered to stop that person from causing harm to the other person.

It is clearly stated in the constitution that there shall be a Nigeria Police Force for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. There is no other police force. The military can come to us in aid of civil authority. We are the civil authority because we are supposed to deal with harmless civilians. So, we are the civil authorities.

Our arms storage is limited because we are dealing with harmless civilians. But we have to use arms when the civilians are armed against us. In aid of civil authorities, we are the one in charge of apprehending offenders before, during or after elections. Every other person that is coming is only coming to help us. We are the authorities, we are the leading agency. So, you are a leading agency and you must take charge of wherever you are posted to.

Our duty is to make sure that the elections are conducted freely, fairly and peacefully and violence-free. There must be a code of conduct that you have to uphold to make sure that we actualize our goals. Don’t bring God into this matter because you have to work hard before you now ask God to help you. How do you work hard? You make sure that you prepare.

This is a turning point in the history of the Nigeria Police where two very powerful political parties are contesting keenly. So, we have to be very serious. We have to be very bold. We have to be very brave. You must remain at your duty post. You must make sure you keep an eagle eye on everybody coming there. You must make sure that whatever is in the Electoral Act, whatever is against the Electoral Act, you are there to stop it. You are not there to start greeting honourable or oga ‘how are you?’ No. That is your day. Everybody there is coming to line up. No governor, no president, no AIG, no IG. Everybody is lining up to vote and go his way.

When they come there, if you like you can salute the governor. If you like you don’t salute him. He’s coming there to come and vote. He votes and he goes away. Anybody who comes there with an entourage of vehicles, you arrest them immediately. Even if the governor comes there with an entourage and with policemen by his side to come and intimidate people there you call your senior because you don’t have the power over them. You call your senior to come and disperse them. The governor will come quietly, may be with his ADC, to vote and walk away quietly.

Anybody who comes there with people jumping down, don’t be intimidated. Stop them, even if he’s the governor. You have the power to say stop there and he stops there. ‘Your excellency, I don’t like your conduct.’ You call your senior officers around.

I say I have come here to blow air of courage and confidence into your body. Let me tell you, if we find you wanting in these coming elections, they will set up a commission of inquiry to investigate what happened and if you are guilty, you’ll go in for it.

We are in a very critical period. A period that this all our ranks are now shaky, either you are promoted or you retain it or you are demoted or you are dismissed. So, it’s left for you to choose which one is better for you. For me, I want to maintain my rank and I want my rank to be increased. I want to go up and be at the top. I don’t know about you. So, you have to work hard. The most senior person at the polling booth, you are not under the civil defence. You are not under any para-military, you are in charge. I repeat, you are in charge. They are only coming to help you, to assist you. So on that day you must keep your face straight. Watch everybody. Make sure there is no problem.

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I want to become Police IG - Controversial AIG Mbu says

AIG Mbu orders arrest of 50 police officers for dressing shabbily

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By Dimeji Kayode-Adedeji

Fifty policemen with the Lagos State Police Command are currently in detention for dressing shabbily to work.

Joseph Mbu

The Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 2, Joseph Mbu, disclosed this to journalists in Abeokuta, shortly after meeting with the officers of the Ogun State Command at Eleweran headquarters on Thursday.

The police boss said about 70 per cent of officers lack discipline and added that the offence of the erring police officers range from wearing dirty uniforms, bathroom slippers, carrying riffles while wearing mufti, amongst others. He said such conducts are against the codes of conducts.

‪Mr. Mbu, however expressed hope that the detained police officers would turn over a new leaf within the space of one month.

‪”What I have noticed is that there is much indiscipline amongst the policemen. They dress anyhow, come to Lagos, they are more than 50 in my cell,” he stated.

‪”They dress the way they like, they wear bathroom slippers, they wear mufti and carry riffles, this is not part of the police work. They are in the cell already, they are being punished and I know my men, within the next one month, they will change,” Mr. Mbu said.

‪Mr. Mbu said the media him popular.

“I wasn’t popular in Rivers State, you made me popular in Rivers State. I was popular in Oyo State, I was popular in Abuja when I was CP of FCT and when I was posted to zone 7,” he said.

‪”In Rivers State, you people were hearing one side of the story because the other party was richer, you were not hearing my own part of the story. You have not bothered to go to Oyo State to go and ask why I was successful in the state. Why I was named the best CP by the House of Assembly,” he said.

Mr. Mbu has been in the news for controversial reasons, the latest being his remarks on Thursday that he will order his officers to kill 20 people in response, if any police personnel is killed during the 2015 elections.

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AIG Mbu orders arrest of 50 police officers for dressing shabbily

AIG Mbu not fit to be a police officer - APC

By Ehi Ekhator, Naija Center News.

The Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has expressed shock over the unfortunate outburst and self glorification of Mr. Joseph Mbu, the recently promoted to Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG), who in an unprovoked attack claimed to have tamed Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi during his (Mbu’s) infamous days as Commissioner of Police in Rivers State.

Joseph Mbu

AIG Mbu was reported to have made the boastful claim on Monday in Abuja while handing over to Mr. Wilson Inalegwu, his successor as FCT Commissioner of Police.

Mbu on that occasion described himself as the lion that tamed the leopard in Rivers State. He was referring to Governor Amaechi – the Chief Security Officer of Rivers State from whom Mbu, as a Commissioner of Police, according to APC ought to have been taking orders from if he was actually in the State to do his professional work as a policeman and not to execute a hidden agenda from enemies of Rivers State in Abuja.

APC added “This careless statement by a man whose tenure as Commissioner of Police in Rivers State nearly ruined both the security and economy of our dear State simply vindicates our stand that Mbu ought not to be in a disciplined and respected profession like the police. We have consistently pointed out that Joseph Mbu ought not to be in police in the first place, not to talk of being promoted to enviable rank of Assistant Inspector-General of Police which he presently occupies. It is a big shame that, rather than fight crime and insecurity during his days in Rivers State, Mbu – as he himself has now confessed – was busy fighting his boss – a man who has achieved several acclaimed feats in the area of security! We have once more been proved right! For an assumed Ploice Officer that ought to be a protector of the people to turn round to become a lion simply demonstrates that this man ought not to be in a disciplined discpline like Police.

“It is a sad commentary on the rot in our dear Country that a man like Mbu, who has no respect for constitutional authority and takes pleasure in sabotaging a man from whom he should be taking orders, could rise to his present enviable position in the Nigeria Police Force. This obviously speaks volumes about the present state of affairs in the Force.

“In the circumstances, we just pray and hope that what we are reading in the papers about the assigned mission of our new Commissioner of Police, Mr. Dan Bature, is not true. From reports in the press, Mr. Bature has been sent to install an unpopular PDP character who has destroyed our education sector at the Federal level as the next Governor of Rivers State. If this is indeed true, we hope that Mr. Bature will refuse to be another Joseph Mbu and do his work in Rivers State as a professional officer, as we have always known him to be to avoid destroying his hard earned reputation as a serious Police Officer.”

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AIG Mbu not fit to be a police officer - APC

You Are No Lion But A Shameless, Corrupt Puppet Of A Woman - Amaechi Replies MBU:

Rivers State Governor and chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum(NGF) Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has dismissed comments by the infamous and draconian former Commissioner of Police in Rivers State Joseph Mbu, who while apparently referring to Governor Amaechi described himself as a lion who tamed the Governor in Port Harcourt.

Rotimi Amaechi

Mbu, who was recently promoted Assistant Inspector-General of Police, said this while handling over to the FCT Commissioner of Police, Wilson Inalegwu, on Monday in Abuja.

However, Governor Amaechi scoffed at Mbu’s claims to be a lion. In a statement by his Spokesman David Iyofor in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, the Governor described Mbu as a puppet who completely lacks the steel and strength of character of a lion, and is rather a shameless, corrupt puppet and toothless attack dog of a woman.

How can a man who willingly submits himself to serve as the puppet of a woman call himself a lion? How ironic! Mr. Mbu, no lion behaves like that! You are a disgrace and shame to the Nigerian Police Force.”

Amaechi recounted that when the former Rivers police commissioner finally left the state, Mbu disobeyed the instruction of the Inspector General of Police to pack out of his official residence in Rivers State.

“Mbu refused to pack out because he said he would come back here (to Rivers State) as the Commissioner to organize the 2015 elections. When eventually he packed out and this is a long time after his successor had resumed here, he took everything including the carpet and nothing has happened to him, nobody has punished him for that. During his time here, when we hold Security Council meetings in Rivers State, he goes to report the proceedings of the meetings, what everyone said, to his woman puppeteer.

The statement concluded that a thousand Mbus can neither “tame”(using the word of Mbu) Governor Amaechi nor the people of Rivers State to surrender their constitutionally guaranteed democratic rights to anyone, no matter how highly placed.

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You Are No Lion But A Shameless, Corrupt Puppet Of A Woman - Amaechi Replies MBU:

Joseph Mbu a politician in police uniform - Amaechi

GOVERNOR Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, yesterday, described the former Police Commissioner in the state, Mr. Joseph Mbu, as a politician in police uniform, who attempted to cripple the economy of the state.

Joseph Mbu

Amaechi who spoke when the newly deployed Commissioner of Police, Mr. Dan Bature in company of the outgoing Commissioner of Police and newly promoted Assistant Inspector General of Police, Mr. Tunde Ogunshakin and other top Police officers paid him a courtesy visit at  the Government House in Port Harcourt, said that the former police boss deviated from his professional role of protecting lives and property by serving politicians of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

He said, “Unlike Mr Mbu, who clearly showed us that he was a registered member of PDP, in your own case (Ogunshakin), you know that we had disagreement, but you realised your responsibility to ensure the security of lives and property as the paramount responsibility of the Nigerian Police. It was important you kept the peace. And I thank you for that peace. I am also sure, Rivers people are happy about that. And the way Mr. Mbu was going, Rivers economy would have collapsed completely. Fortunately for us, they took him away and brought you (Ogunshakin) and you restored calm. You tried to create a platform for all parties to have access to you. And as you go, please, go with that same spirit. The Police in Rivers State should discharge their responsibility as it concerns the protection of lives and property.

“Let me welcome the new commissioner of Police and say that if the Federal Government refuses, I will repeat what I said, when I was sworn in as governor in 2007. I said, if the Federal Government refuses to provide legitimate source of livelihood for Nigerians in our state, Nigerians will provide for themselves illegitimate source of livelihood. And that include kidnapping, robbery, stealing by people who will hire or provide police or military uniforms. And that illegitimate source of livelihood becomes its own economy which automatically frightens the legitimate economy.”

He advised the new commissioner of Police, Mr. Bature to ensure social justice rather than partisan politics, warning that the absence of social justice may breed resistance and breakdown of law

 

Joseph Mbu a politician in police uniform - Amaechi

Joseph Mbu, 18 others promoted to AIG

Mbu Joseph Mbu, a controversial police commissioner in charge of the Federal Capital Territory, has been promoted.

Joseph Mbu

Mr. Mbu was among 18 other senior police officers promoted to the rank of Assistant Inspector General of Police by the Police Service Commission in Abuja on Wednesday.

Mr. Mbu came to national notoriety in Nigeria when he served as the Rivers State commissioner of police. He mobilized police under his control and tried unsuccessfully to remove Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi who was then having a political face-off with President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Patience.

Pro-democratic activists believed that Mrs. Patience Jonathan, the wife of the Nigerian president, as well as Nyeson Wike, the minister of state for education, instigated Mr. Mbu’s many clashes with Governor Amaechi.

Mr. Mbu was widely criticized for his brash manners and political partisanship. After his transfer to Abuja, Mr. Mbu announced that he was banning all protest rallies in the Federal Capital Territory. His pronouncement was so embarrassing that the immediate past Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, had to overrule him.

Other commissioners of police who were also elevated are Ambrose O. Aisibor, Adebayo Ajileye, Umaru Abubakar Manko, Joel Kayode Theophilus, Wilfred Eje Obute, Felix Osita Uyanna, A. J. Abakasanga, Jubril Olawale Adeniji, Ibrahim M. Maishanu, Godfrey E. Okeke, Chintua Amajor-Onu, Lawal Tanko, Usman Akila Gwarry, Kalafite Helen Adeyemi, Yahaya Garba Ardo, Irimiya F. Yerima, Olufemi A. Adenaike and Patrick Dey Dokumor.

All the appointments are with effect from August 20, 2014.

A statement signed by a police spokesman, Ferdinand U. Ekpe, said the promotions became necessary in order to fill the vacancies created by recent retirements and promotions in the police. Mr. Ekpe added that the promotions would serve to re-invigorate and reposition zonal police commands headed by AIGS in order to help tackle the country’s current security challenges.

The police service commission had earlier promoted eight officers to the rank of the deputy inspector general of police.

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Joseph Mbu, 18 others promoted to AIG

Joseph Mbu two sons rusticated from Ukraine University

By Ehi Ekhator, Naija Center News.

Like father like son as two sons belonging to the Commissioner of Police of the Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Joseph Mbu have been rusticated from Ukraine University, NAIJA CENTER NEWS has learnt.

Joseph Mbu

The two boys got admission into National Pirogov Memorial Medical University, Vinnytsia 9 years ago to study medicine, a six years programme, and had continuously collected money from their father without graduation.

A source who spoke with NAIJA CENTER NEWS disclosed that Patrick is known for his stubbornness and regular assault on people, while his brother popularly known as DJ goes from club to club without attending classes.

Their problem started last year when the Dean invited the duo to his office for questioning, they both lied that they were planning to change their school and requested for documents for the transfer

The source said ‘’ The Dean fixed two days after for them to come back for their documents, unknown to them that he called the school they said they were transferring to and the alleged new school denied having any communication with the duo.

‘’When they came back on the agreed date, the Dean of their school requested them to sit and wait. After few minutes of waiting, sensing trouble, Patrick jack up the dean and almost beat him up’’

NAIJA CENTER NEWS gathered that the embarrassed police commissioner who claimed to represent discipline but could not inculcate same into his two sons, did everything every fathers could do to put them back to the university by promising to pay for things destroyed in the Dean’s office. He also realized that the money he had been spending had been in vain and decided to send one of them to a school in China while the other one still claim DJ from one club to another.

Joseph Mbu who was the former commissioner of police in Rivers State was transferred to Abuja based on similar issue, regular fallout between him and the Rivers state governor, Rotimi Amaechi.

The Rivers State government complained of his nuisance and wrote a petition requesting the Inspector General of Police to transfer him to the hot zone in the North East where the dreaded Boko Haram is claiming lives and properties.

 

 

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Joseph Mbu two sons rusticated from Ukraine University

CHIBOK GIRLS: We didn’t ban rallies in Abuja – IG

ABUJA — Barely 24 hours after the FCT Commissioner of Police, Mbu Joseph Mbu announced a ban on protests connected with efforts to secure the release of the more than 200 abducted girls of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State, Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, yesterday, clarified the statement of the Abuja Police Commissioner. The IGP insisted that the Police did not ban peaceful rallies.

The IGP’s intervention came on a day the #BringBackOurGirls group, that is behind the protest, filed a N200m suit at the Abuja High Court, challenging the powers of the Nigerian Police Force to ban any form of protest within the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.

Announcing the ban on protests, Monday, Mbu had said: “The trend is now posing a serious security threat to those living around, and as the FCT police boss, I cannot fold my hands and watch this lawlessness. Information reaching us is that too soon, dangerous elements will join the groups under the guise of protest and detonate explosives aimed at embarrassing the government. Accordingly, protests on the Chibok Girls are hereby banned with immediate effect”.

The announcement attracted immediate condemnations from across the country.

The Inspector-General of Police, however, issued a clarification yesterday, saying that following a recent intelligence report of a likely infiltration and hijack of otherwise peaceful protests by some criminal elements having links with insurgents, the Police only issued ‘an advisory notice’ enjoining citizens to apply caution in the said rallies, particularly in the Federal Capital Territory and its environs.

Police did not ban peaceful rallies — IGP

Addressing the media through the Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Frank Mba, the IG said:

“The Police High Command wishes to inform the general public that the Force has not issued any order banning peaceful assemblies/protests anywhere in Nigeria.

“Against the backdrop of current security challenges in the country, coupled with a recent intelligence report of a likely infiltration and hijack of otherwise innocuous and peaceful protests by some criminal elements having links with insurgents, the Police only issued advisory notice, enjoining citizens to apply caution in the said rallies, particularly in the Federal Capital Territory and its environs.

“The IGP calls on the general public to see the present position of the Force as a necessary sacrifice for the peace our nation needs, as security is a collective responsibility. Consequently, citizens are strongly advised to reconsider their positions on the issues of rallies and protests in FCT until the existing threats are appropriately neutralized and removed from our midst by relevant security agencies,” he added.

Elaborating more on the threats, CSP Mba said: “The threat is currently being investigated. Once we are able to clearly and comprehensively neutralize them, we will say the coast is clear.

“You all will agree that under the leadership of the present Police High Command, we have demonstrated a very strong sense of democratic policing. Police have been escorting demonstrators, but this time around, there is over-riding need to advise against these protests”, Mba said.

Ezekwesili, Aturu react

When her reaction was sought, yesterday, on the clarification made by the Inspector General of Police, former Minister of Education, Dr Oby Ezekwesili said: “We have already gone to court; therefore I have nothing else to add.”

In his reaction, Lagos lawyer, Mr Bamidele Aturu said: “The reaction of the Inspector General of Police to the directive of the FCT police boss, Mr. Joseph Mbu, to the extent that protesters should stay away from Abuja shows that Mbu always acts on his own without instruction. He has demonstrated that he is bigger than the authority. Now having violated the law and our rights to freely protest against injustice, what will the authority do to him to prevent future occurrence?”

#BringBackOurGirls group drag Police to court

Meanwhile, erstwhile Minister of Education, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili; wife of former Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Mrs. Maryam Uwais and 15 others, yesterday, went to court to challenge the powers of the Nigerian Police Force to ban any form of protest within the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, aimed at securing the release of the abducted schoolgirls.

In an application for the enforcement of their fundamental human rights to peaceful assembly and association which they filed before an Abuja High Court at Maitama, the plaintiffs, through their lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, they insisted that the FCT Commissioner of Police, Mr. Joseph Mbu, does not have the constitutional powers to stop the #BringBackOurGirls protests.

They maintained that such action by the police would amount to a gross violation of their statutory rights and privileges as guaranteed by Sections 38, 39 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, and Articles 8, 10 and 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.

Others behind the suit, yesterday, were Mrs. Hadiza Bala Usman, Samuel Yaga, Mrs. Rebecca Samuel Yaga, Mrs. Sarah Ishaya, Mallam Dunama Mfur, Lawan Abana, Dr. Fogu Bitrus, Dauda Iliya, Kibaku Area Development Association (KADA), Bashir Ibrahim Yusuf, Jibrin Ibrahim, Saudatu Mahdi, Bukky Shonibare, Rotimi Olawale and Florence Ozor.

The Commissioner of Police, FCT, Mr. Mbu was listed as the sole respondent in the suit.

What they want

Specifically, the plaintiffs are praying the court for:

“An order for the enforcement of the fundamental human rights of the applicants to freedom of conscience, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association guaranteed by Section 38, 39 and 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, and Articles 8, 10, 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, LFN, 2004 in terms of the reliefs sought in the statement accompanying the affidavit in support of this application.

“A declaration that the decision of the respondent to ban protests and rallies in the Federal Capital Territory with effect from Monday, June 2, 2014, is illegal, unconstitutional, null and void as it violates the fundamental rights of the applicant to freedom of conscience, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association guaranteed by Section 38, 39 and 40 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, and Articles 8, 10, 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, LFN, 2004.

“A declaration that the respondent is not competent to ban protests and rallies in the Federal Capital Territory in any manner whatsoever and however without an order issued by a court of competent jurisdiction.

“An order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondent, his agents and privies from further preventing the applicants or aggrieved Nigerians from taking part in protests and rallies in exercise of their freedom of conscience, expression, assembly and association as guaranteed by Sections 38, 39 and 40 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, and Articles 8, 10, 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, LFN, 2004.

“An order directing the respondent to pay to the applicant the sum of N200m only as damages for the said act of violation of applicants’ fundamental rights to freedom of conscience, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association as guaranteed by Sections 38, 39 and 40 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, and Articles 8, 10, 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, LFN, 2004.

In a 25-paragraph affidavit deposed to by the 1st plaintiff, Hadiza Bala Usman, the protesters told the court that they had in the past 31 days, engaged in daily advocacy and campaign on the plight of over 200 school girls abducted from Chibok Secondary School in Borno State, under the aegis of ‘Women for Peace and Justice #BringBackOurGirls.

 

CHIBOK GIRLS: We didn’t ban rallies in Abuja – IG