EndSARS: Judicial Panel Orders Arrest Of Police Commissioner, Inspector

#EndSARS: Judicial Panel Orders Arrest Of Police Commissioner, Inspector

The police officer had failed to honour several orders of the panel directing him to appear with the case file of the victim.

   

The Abuja judicial panel established to probe brutality and human rights abuses linked to the disbanded special anti-robbery squad (SARS) and other units of the police force has issued arrest warrants against two police officers who have several times shunned its summons and orders.

One of those summoned police officers is the Commissioner of Police in charge of legal services at the Force Headquarters, Ogbeh Ochogwu. 

The other is an inspector, Shunku Terhermber, attached to the Bwari Police Division in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

The panel, chaired by Suleiman Galadima, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, ordered the arrest of the two police officers who are wanted in respect of different cases.

Terhermber, attached to the Bwari Police Division, in Abuja, had been earlier summoned through the head of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Makinde Ola.

He is named as a respondent in a case of unlawful arrest, detention and seizure of properties of Michael Uzoagba.

Uzoagba, the complainant, claimed that Terhember, along with other officers, invaded his shop sometime in 2020. He said the invading police officers questioned him about his son’s whereabouts.

He said after he informed them he did not know where his son was, they took various electrical appliances from his shop, loaded them into a waiting police van, and drove away.

At Monday’s hearing, Police lawyer, Fidelis Ogwobe, told the panel that he visited Bwari Area Council, to inform Terhermber of the panel’s summons against him, but failed to show up.

He, however, said on the case, the panel may decide to proceed in the absence of Terhermber in accordance with the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), considering the fact that the officer had been given the opportunity to defend himself and had failed to do so.

After deliberations, an arrest warrant was issued against the officer.

On his part, the commissioner of police in charge of legal affairs at Force Headquarters, Ochogwu, is wanted by the panel in respect of a case of alleged unlawful arrest, detention and enforced disappearance of John Emeka Alozie.

Alozie is said to have been missing from police custody since June 25, 2017.

The police officer had failed to honour several orders of the panel directing him to appear with the case file of the victim.

The panel had adjourned its sitting at the instance of Ochogwu five times.

Ordering the police officer’s arrest on Monday, the panel chairman, Galadima, said his attitude was unbecoming of a lawyer and officer of the police force.

In addition to ordering the police officer’s arrest, the panel chairman also ordered that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) report his conduct to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC), the body statutorily saddled with the responsibility of disciplining lawyers found wanting in ethical and professional codes.

Galadima noted that Ochogwu “flagrantly and repeatedly disobeyed the order of the panel” having refused to turn in the said case file to enable the panel to unravel the truth about the whereabouts of Alozie.