The Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL), the umbrella body of all the youth organizations in the South East geopolitical zone has drew the attention of the public to a lingering injustice.
COSEYL, in a statement signed by Its President General, Hon Goodluck Ibem, said it’s is sad to state that during the lockdown some police officers in Abia state command of the force carried out successively extrajudicial killings on Abians in places like Ururuka and Ohafia in a rather unprofessional manner to keep to the Covid-19 protocols.
The Coalition regret to announce that barring arrest of these officers, no prosecutorial trial of any kind has followed, not even hearing.
It is true that the buck, at state command level, stops at CP Ene Okon’s table, but the idea of keeping these officers for rather too long under protective custody is an out and out injustice on Okon even when the state command had vowed to set up a high-powered committee to look into this issue.
Let it be recalled that though now redeployed, Okon reduced the issue of insecurity to the minimum. The Special Anti-robbery Squad, SARS as acronymed, were on top of the security situation within the state. The issue of the killing of a couple in Umuahia before the children whereupon the criminals were apprehended is still fresh in our collective memory. Again, through intelligence, CP Okon’s men foiled a robbery attack on Fidelity Bank, Aba, in October of 2019 even when the bank and its officials had not known what was in the offing. Kidnapers were flushed out of the state and other criminal elements relocated from the state for fear of CP Okon.
During the said time criminal hideout and facilities billeted by bad elements were raided and arrests made, this helped in tackling some social problems within the state. Though the killings, as they were, remain lamentable and condemnable so, the question becomes: what logic is there in removing a man who had not given order to his surbodinates to kill or use Abians for target practice whereas the trigger-happy officers are yet to have a date in court?
Nothing compares with life, we regret that Abians died but what happened to the ex police commissioner has no place in justice should the offenders remain at large.
As a Coalition we demand that the true facts surrounding those lockdown killings be inquired into and justice done. Sad to know is that even after his unfortunate redeployment, there have been cases of people killed extrajudicially. This is why as a front for progressives we demand a rejig of the police in areas of recruitment, training, welfare, promotion and working condition else we would not be making an inch of headway.
