Mrs. Ebere Okonkwo, wife of a member of the Tricycle Owners Association of Nigeria (TOAN) Awka branch in Anambra State, arrested by the police on March 15 this year, has raised the alarm over her husband’s sudden disappearance from police custody.
Ebere, 28, said she started searching for her husband, Dubuem Okonkwo, who was arrested and paraded alongside other suspects by the Commissioner of Police, Echeng Echeng at the Command Headquarters in Awka. However, she claimed that Okonkwo went missing after the parade.
According to the mother of one, the police picked up her husband at Unizik Junction Park, adding that the CP refused to tell the family or his association his offence.
Two months later, Ebere lamented that she had been left to cater to their 22-month-old baby, Amanda, without any information about her husband.
She bemoaned: “That is why I am crying to President Muhammadu Buhari, Inspector-General of Police, Women Affairs Minister, and well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on CP Echeng and his subordinates to bring my husband out.
“I am not disputing whether he committed a crime or not, but I want to know the crime he committed and to see him face-to-face and ask him some questions. If he has also been killed extra-judicially without trial, let me know.”
She also frowned at the idea of referring them from one police station to the other or police formations, saying it’s not the best. “If they have killed him as they have done to many hapless souls, let them save the family the inconveniences of searching for him and release his body for burial.”
According to the distressed wife, her family has gone to the State Command Headquarters where he was paraded. She continued that people who saw Okonkwo told them that he raised his hands to inquire about his offence, “And why he was paraded for a crime he did not commit, but he was hushed by the policemen guiding the suspects on the parade ground.
“His photograph was taken by some people who were at the parade ground, so those who arrested him and paraded him should know his whereabouts, because we have his photograph while on the parade ground. If he is dead, let us know and if he is still alive, let us know”, Ebere queried.
Pleading further, Ebere said, “My daughter and I are on our knees begging President Buhari, IGP Usman Akali Baba, and other well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the Anambra State Police command to show us our breadwinner.
“Please, don’t allow my husband to die. We need him because he is our breadwinner and that of his Octogenarian father. His father has not been briefed about his arrest, because the information may send him to his grave,” say the wife.
In the words of Ebere, although Dubem’s picture was sighted among those paraded at the police headquarters on March 16, his name was not listed among the suspects in the statement from the Anambra State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Toochukwu Ikenga.
Ikenga statement read in part: “On Tuesday 15th March 2022 information was received that a cult group had launched an attack on Unizik vigilante group at miracle junction, ifite, Awka.
“Police operatives were mobilised to lay ambush for the gang as they fled from the scene. The effort paid off as the police succeeded in demobilising the gang and recovering a cache of weapons, which included the two AK-47 rifles earlier stolen from the two policemen murdered on December 14, 2021. The leader of the gang, Uchenna Nwobu( a.k.a) Anali was killed, while the other gang member was arrested.”
However, the family lawyer, S.O Iwuoba of Standard Trust Chambers confirmed that all efforts to see Okonkwo proved abortive.
In a petition to Anambra State Police Commissioner Police, the lawyer wrote, “We are solicitors to Engr. Felix Ndubiisi, a relative to Mr. Chidubem Okonkwo, who was arrested by Policemen from your Command and was paraded on March 17, 2022.
“Since after his parade, the said Okonkwo has not been seen by any member of his family. We therefore, appeal to you to order the Awkuzu police division to grant access to our client and the family members of Okonkwo to see him”.
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