By TINA TIMOTHY

International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has accused the Nigerian Police Force and Ebonyi State government of covering up abduction and disappearance of five NELAN Field Engineers, assigned to work at a construction site located at Effium in Ohaukwu Local Government Area of the state.

Intersociety made the allegation in a statement it issued in Onitsha, Eastern Nigeria, on Monday, January 31, 2022, and signed by Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chair; Obianuju Joy Igboeli Esquire, Head, Civil Liberties and Rule of Law; Chidimma Eva Udegbunam Esquire, Head, Campaign and Publicity; and Comrade Chibueze Nwajiaku, Deputy Head, Policing and Law Enforcement.

According to the statement, “failed policing is the most undoing of the present leadership of the Nigeria Police Force under IGP Usman Alkali Baba and it includes bribery and corruption and lack of, or failure, to use modern skills and techniques for criminal investigations.

These have given rooms for failed preventive policing, failed intelligence policing, failed detective policing, failed investigative policing and near total resort to jungle justice policing and have further led to chronic culture of commercialized policing, ‘prosecutorial vindictiveness’, hate policing, ethno-religious profiling, heavy reliance on hearsay and uninvestigated evidence, false and criminal labeling, stigmatization and police sub-culture of corruptive and isolationist individualism such as privatized policing and primitive accumulation of material wealth along duty lines.”

“Totality of these, in addition to leadership failure on the part of the present Government of Ebonyi State, have been responsible for continued abduction and disappearance of the five NELAN Field Engineers since 3rd November 2021 at the construction site of the AfDB funded $150m Ebonyi Ring Road Phase 2 Project located at Effium in Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

“Their high-profile abduction and disappearance have lasted for almost three months or 90 days, with nothing concrete coming out of same. While the authorities of the Nigeria Police Force have continued to chase shadows, including wastage of public funds and dissipation of much energy on irrelevancies and frivolities, the Government of Ebonyi State is busy dictatorially distracting the public and diverting their attention and has appeared to be exploiting possible loopholes to escape complicity in furtherance of clear abdication of its constitutional and statutory responsibilities. This is to the extent that the reaction of the State Government issued on 21st Dec 2021 was filled with contradictions and self indictments and failed to address the main issues till date.

“In all, Intersociety sees nothing than systematic and deliberate efforts by the duo of the Nigeria Police Force and the Government of Ebonyi State to dangerously cover up the heinous and dastardly act. The colossal failure of the Nigeria Police Force, including its Ebonyi State Police Command and Force Headquarters’ Departments of Intelligence, Investigations, Operations and Information Communications Technology, to unmask the circumstances leading to the five NELAN Engineers’ abduction and disappearance and the criminal citizens, entities or bodies responsible also speaks volume of the chronic decadence that has afflicted the Force in recent years. This is to the extent that ‘hearsay’, ‘trial by ordeal’ and other forms of jungle justice policing have become their modus operandi, especially in the Force’s Departments of Intelligence and Investigations.”

The group, insisting that the Police was primarily responsible “for unmasking the Ebonyi State five NELAN Engineers’ abduction and disappearance, as well as their abductors” further said: “The NPF Department responsible for unmasking the Ebonyi State five NELAN Engineers’ abduction and disappearance and their abductors is the Force Department of Criminal Investigations and its sub departments of Homicide, Anti Kidnapping, Counter Terrorism and Forensic (including criminalistics, pathology, toxicology, physical anthropology, odontology, psychiatry, serology, ballistics, homicide, crime labs, laboratories and victimology). Where the required skills and techniques such as in the areas of electronic policing and law enforcement operations are in short supply in the NPF’s FCID, the Department is bound to seek and secure them from the Departments of ICT and Operations, including skills and techniques for electronic intelligence, electronic tracking or detection and electronic investigation which must all revolve around the Triangular of “Crime Scene and its Acts, the Victims and their Reactions/Conditions and the Perpetrators and their Dastardly Acts.”

“Finally, the above technical explanations are to further point out clearly that the authorities of the Nigeria Police Force are just beating about the bush in the instant case or rigmaroling in absurdities, irrelevancies and frivolities.

“As a matter of fact, the Nigeria Police Force, joined by the Ebonyi State Government are deliberately chasing shadows and covering up the heinous act. Investigations into the dastardly act must also not be seen or treated as the private property of the Nigeria Police Force and the Ebonyi State Government.

“Rather, they are mandatorily publicly owned and funded and to this extent, the two State Actors owe all Nigerians, including the NELAN Engineers Firm and Families of the abducted and disappeared as well as members of the Int’l Community, mandatory obligation by publicly briefing them on weekly basis concerning the findings so far made from their investigations, if any, into the heinous act.

“The Investigative Findings under demand must include: the whereabouts or locations of the abducted and disappeared Engineers, whether they are still alive or killed in captivity by their abductors/captors, why they were abducted and disappeared, who and who was responsible for abducting and disappearing them, the whereabouts or locations of their abductees or slayers (whether in custody or facing investigation/prosecution or still at large), who procured them to perpetrate the dastardly act (state actors or troublesome non-state actors?) and who and who has been aiding and abetting their heinous act.

“Such investigative findings or their highlights must be weekly made public by the DIG-FCID, joined by the CP of Ebonyi State Police Command and ACP/DCP in charge of the State CID. The Ebonyi State Government and the present leadership of the Nigeria Police Force are strongly reminded that crimes have no expiring dates to be investigated and prosecuted and not even the ‘immunity of office’ can stop same.”

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