…Demands Independent Judicial Commission

A civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), on Wednesday, slammed the Nigeria Police Force for clandestine attempts to blackmail a whistle blower, 26-year-old National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member, Nnamdi Daniel, in an organ harvesting case allegedly involving top Police officers in the Anambra State Police Command.

HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the massive transfer of all the Police operatives from Anambra State to other states and the redeployment of other Police operatives to Anambra State by the Police Service Commission was suspect.

The group therefore demanded that a separate judicial commission of investigators made up of independent forensic scientists, criminologists and others be constituted by the Anambra State Government to unravel the circumstances behind the organ harvesting allegations against the police.

Recall that in February, Daniel, a whistleblower, through a blog, Gistlover, shared evidence accusing three members of the state Police Force of the atrocious activities.

The Police officers involved in the allegations are the Commander, Rapid Response Squad in Anambra, CSP Patrick Agbazue; the Zonal Public Relations Officer, Zone 13, Ukpo, SP Nkeiru Nwode; and Inspector Harrison Akama.

Following the allegations, the Force Headquarters set up a panel to investigate the matter after inviting the officers involved to Abuja, and subsequently freeing them.

Earlier in April, after two months, Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Muyiwa Adejobi, said the panel investigating the allegations of killings, extortion and organ harvesting levelled against some senior officers of two Police formations in Anambra has submitted its report.

However, HURIWA is insisting that the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, must not sweep the alleged organ harvesting case involving the high-ranking members of the Anambra State Police Command under the carpet.

The group said there were reports that some Police officers planned to gun down the whistle blower instead of arraigning him in court because of the “volume of information” at his disposal which could implicate several Police personnel.

The HURIWA National Coordinator said: “The attempts by the Police authority to conceal facts relating to this allegation and the Police subterranean attempts to blackmail the whistleblower so as to muddle up the entire damaging allegations are condemnable.

“The police should make its findings public if it is not hiding anything. That the Police continue to keep its findings away is simply a gambit to hide the serious allegations under the carpet of impunity and try to do propaganda to clean up the mess of the Police in all of these allegations.

“We demand that a separate judicial commission of investigators made up of independent forensic scientists, criminologists and judicial officers be constituted by the Anambra State government to unravel the circumstances behind these allegations of human organ harvesting against the Police, the massive transfer of all the Police operatives from Anambra State to other states and the redeployment of other Police operatives to Anambra State by the Police Service Commission.

“The silence of the Police Service Commission is very dangerous and must be revisited. Why is the PSC silent? Is PSC already pocketed by the office of the IGP given the rapprochement going on between the PSC led by a former IGP and the incumbent IGP? Nigerians demand accountability.”