The South-South zone of the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) has expressed fears over the lives of Mr. Okey Okirie and members of his family following alleged harassment and threat by the Commander of the Eagle Crack Police Unit of the State Police Command, Mr. Benson Adetunji.
In a petition to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, routed through the Chairman, House Committee on Judiciary and Human Rights, the CLO said it found it strange that Mr. Benson Adetunji has ‘appointed himself Judge and Jury in a purely civil matter between Mr. Okey Okirie and Mr. Eze Emeghara’ who, they said, were previously business partners.
“The transaction between Mr. Okirie and Mr Emeghara is a business/ corporate transaction which to best of our knowledge is not subject of litigation in any court of law. Mr. Benson and his team have not in any way made any attempt to investigate the matter of the business transaction, but rather have decided to dwell on a scurrilous and cooked-up allegation of gun running and cultism leveled against Mr. Okirie by Mr. Emeghara”.
In the petition which was signed by CLO’s South-South zonal Chairman, Carl Chinedu Uchegbu, said it is disturbed that Mr. Adetenji who by virtue of being a law officer should like Caesars’s wife be expected to be above board.
“He has instead become the complainant, the prosecutor “persecutor”, judge and jury. Mr. Adetunji has immersed himself too personally and too deeply into the matter that we can no longer trust his professional judgment and conduct in this matter. He has acted in breach of law enforcement ethics and code of conduct and has therefore raised red flags about his bias and neutrality in this matter.
“Mr. Benson Adetunji has refused all entreaties and request from the police legal unit to release the case file to them based on petitions and directives from superior authorities. He has declared that he will break into their home and remove personal properties of the Okirie family without recourse to due process.
“We are troubled that if Mr. Benson Adentuji is allowed to carry out this threat, he will use the opportunity to plant incriminating evidences against Mr. Okirie to validate his spurious and malicious allegations of gun running and cultism”, the group said.
while noting that Mr. Okirie and his family now live in fear and mortal dread of Mr. Benson and his team of policemen who have raided their home on more than four occasions, CLO urged the public to hold Mr. Benson Adetunji and his friend, Eze Emeghara personally responsible with his Eagle Crack team if anything happens to Mr. Okey Okirie and his family.
The group declared that the constitutional responsibility of the police is to protect the lives and properties of law abiding citizens and not to collude with those he described as dubious business partners, to witch-hunt and molest innocent citizens.
concluding, the CLO urge the Honourable Speaker to rise up quickly to protect the lives of Citizen Okey Okirie and his family by urgently causing a public hearing to be conducted on this matter and other matters of abuse of police duties and human rights as a way of curtailing the activities of police officers like Mr. Benson Adetunji and protecting the lives of all ordinary Nigerians.
