(WATCH VIDEO)ABIA: Family Grieves As 30-Year-Old Man Goes Missing After Policeman, ‘Oracle’ Arrested Him In Aba
One Mr Maxwell Chiedozie Alili, has beckoned on the governor of Abia state, Dr Alex Otti and the state Commissioner of Police, CP Kenechukwu Onwuemelie, to come to his aide and ensure that his 30-year-old younger brother, one Mr Michael Chinedu Okwuonu who has allegedly been in police custody for over two years without making contact with his family is released.
Alili, a native of Osisioma Local Government Area, while speaking with ALL FACTS NEWSPAPER (AFNEWS), on Thursday, said his younger brother, a tiler by profession, returned from Dubai in 2020 and was arrested by a policeman identified only as Emeka alias Oracle, attached with the anti-kidnapping unit of the Azuka Divisional Police in Aba, on January 7, 2021.
His aged father on getting the news of his son’s arrest, went to Azuka police station inquiring after his son but was detained by the said Oracle who claimed that the police was looking for Okwuonu as he is a suspect.
The aged father requested that the cells be opened for him to look for his son but the policemen refused him access but released him on bail after collecting N40,000.
According to Alili, they have petitioned the immediate past Commissioner of Police in Abia state, CP Mustapha Mohammed Bala, and the present commissioner, including Human Rights, but nothing has been done to either see his brother or get him released since 2021.
The family also took the matter to court but neither the said ‘Oracle’ nor the Abia state Police Command appeared throughout the court sittings.
However, Justice C.H. Ahuchaogu of the Abia State High Court, Ukwa Judicial Division, Aba while giving judgement on February 21, 2023 into the suit, no: HUK/85M/2022, ruled that the arrest and continued detention of Mr Michael Chinedu Okwuonu by the Azuka Divisional Police, Ogbor Hill Aba, is a violation of the fundamental human rights of Okwuonu as guaranteed by section 35 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), and therefore, illegal and unconstitutional.
“that the refusal by the 3rd and 7th respondents (Oracle and the Assistant Inspector General of Police , Zone 9 Police headquarters, Umuahia) to either charge the applicant to court if he has committed any offence, or release him conditionally or unconditionally if he has committed no offence, is a violation of the applicant’s right to personal liberty” the judgement read in part.
The court ordered the Abia state police to either arraign Okwuonu in court or resale him and also release his international passport and mobile phones they seized.
The court among others, ordered the respondents to pay the applicant a damage fee of fifty million naira for breach of his rights and for psychological trauma.
The police is yet to obey any of the court’s order.
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