The Int’l Society for Civil Liberties &
Rule of Law-INTERSOCIETY has no problem with exercise
of ‘power of arrest’ by the High Command of the Nigeria Police
Force with respect to 5th June 2020 arrest of Mr.
Pius Nweke (CEO, Best Aluminum Manufacturing Company Nigerian
Limited, Awada, Anambra State). Power of Arrest, provided in the
country’s Criminal Code Act of 2004 (for Southern Nigeria) and
Penal Code Act of 2004(for Northern Nigeria), is a common
responsibility the NPF and its leadership share with every citizen
of Nigeria that has reached the legal age of 18. The Nigeria Police
Force’s ‘power of arrest’ is granted by Section 4 of the Nigeria
Police Force & Regulations, CAP P19 LFN, 2004.
The ‘Power of Arrest’ by every Nigerian citizen of
legal age including the personnel of the Nigeria Police Force,
granted by the country’s body of criminal laws, is given to the
citizens in furtherance of their constitutional duties and
responsibilities clearly outlined by Section 24 of the Constitution
and strengthening of their rights to life in Section 33
of the Constitution and self defense in Sections 32(3) of the
Nigerian Criminal Code Act of 2004 (applicable in Southern Nigeria)
and 59 of the Penal Code Act (applicable in Northern Nigeria).
However, our deep grouses against the Inspector
General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar Adamu and his “Special
Tactical Squad” are the Gestapo (secret terror state police) and
commando styles used in carrying out the arrest. Beyond the
aforesaid, the most undoing of the IGP and his “STS” personnel was
the public parading of the Best Aluminum CEO as if he is ‘a
hardened kidnapper caught in the act’. This is not only a height of
unprofessionalism but also an indication that the Nigeria Police
Force is terminally sick.
It is recalled that Mr. Pius Nweke was waylaid
and abducted by the IGP’s ‘Special Tactical Squad’ along the
Anambra Broadcasting Service-Shoprite area of the Onitsha GRA on
Friday, 5th June 2020. He was taken to the Onitsha
Central Police Station (CPS) where he was held and later released
and asked to report next morning, from where he was taken to the
Force Headquarters where he is currently being detained. The Police
said his vehicle was searched and a pistol found and that he
possesses the short gun “illegally”.
Going by the country’s 1999 Constitution and
its subsidiary criminal legislations as well as relevant treaty
(international) laws ratified or domesticated by Nigeria,
a criminal who is of legal age or 18
years is not a criminal until he or she completely and
sequentially goes through the processes of investigation, arrest,
prosecution, fair trial, conviction and sentencing. But in the case
of the commando styled arrest and ‘caught-in-the-act-kidnapper’
public parading of Mr. Pius Nweke, the Nigeria Police Force has
ended up ‘arresting’, ‘judging’ and ‘finding him guilty’.
By publicly parading him in such despicable manner;
with his two hands handcuffed and forced to hold a pistol, bullets
and a mobile phone; the Police authorities have told the world a
different story. This was done by portraying him as ‘a hardened
kidnapper caught in the act’. The despicable manner with
which the Nigeria Police Force arrested and treated the Best
Aluminum CEO also gravely violates his constitutionally guaranteed
rights to life, dignity of human person, personal liberty and fair
hearing; all contained in Sections 33, 34, 35 and 36 of the
country’s 1999 Constitution.
The Force is so terminally sick that it has now
turned its constitutional and statutory duties and criminal laws of
Nigeria offside down by protecting the guilt and punishing the
innocent; which it now does with utter vehemence and
rabid impunity; to the extent that those who commit heinous crimes
are spared and the innocent or law abiding deadly targeted. Part of
our fear in the above state terrorization of the law abiding
citizens is the possibility of forcing them including the CEO of
Best Aluminum into becoming agents of the Caliphs and enemies of
their own people.
In the area of ‘possession of unlicensed firearms’,
the Nigeria’s Firearms Act, CAP F28 LFN, 2004 is the appropriate
law in place. The Act categorizes firearms into “prohibited
firearms” and “un-prohibited firearms”. In its Section 3,
‘prohibited firearms’ include ‘personal firearms’, also called ‘non
muzzle-loading firearms’. Included in their list are ‘non
muzzle-loading pistols, borne by private persons or civilians,
etc.
Section 4 of the Act guarantees the right of any
Nigerian of legal age to bear ‘personal firearms’ of ‘non
muzzle-loading’ category, provided they are licensed by the
Inspector Gen of Police, subject to acceptance or otherwise of
their licenses by the President. By Section 5 of the Act, any
Nigerian citizen of legal age is entitled to bear any
‘muzzle-loading firearm’ or ‘un-prohibited firearms’; provided they
are licensed by “the Commissioner of Police of a State, subject to
acceptance or otherwise of their licenses by a State Governor.
By the Robbery & Firearms Act, CAP R11, LFN, 2004;
“firearms” include ‘any canon, gun, rifle, carbine,
machine gun, cap-gun, flint-lock gun, revolver, pistol, explosive
or ammunition or other firearm, whether whole or in detached
pieces’. By Section 1 of same Act, a citizen tried and
convicted of robbery is liable to minimum of 21 years imprisonment,
if he or she robbed without firearms and if caught robbing with
firearms, he or she is liable to death sentence. The same death
sentence applies to a citizen tried and convicted of
kidnapping.
However, according to Section 3 of the referenced
Robbery and Firearms Act of 2004, a person tried and found guilty
for ‘illegal possession of firearms’ is liable to ‘10 years
imprisonment or payment of N20, 000 fine or both’. In the Nigerian
body of criminal laws, gravity of offense is determined by number
of years in prison term. That is to say that ‘accusation of illegal
possession of firearms, with ten years prison term, is not the same
with offenses of ‘murder’, ‘terrorism’, ‘kidnapping’ and ‘armed
robbery’ which attract death penalty or life imprisonment.
Therefore, the highlights above are to bring to the
fore the grave unprofessionalism and ‘bad job’ done by the IGP and
his ‘STS’ in the matter under reference. Going by commando nature
of the ambushed arrest, the motives of the IGP and his STS are
utterly dubious and lacking in professionalism, honesty and
neutrality. Put differently, the ambushed arrest and hurried public
parading of the CEO of Best Aluminum are a clear indication of
‘giving a dog a bad name so as to hang it’. As a matter of fact,
the Inspector General of Police and his ‘Special Tactical Squad’
acted as if ‘they are hired private militias.
The Police authorities also acted like gangsters by
engaging in a clear plot of attempting to destroy the image of such
a man of age with track records of entrepreneurship who is also a
major employer of labour with over 30 years standing. Through his
company’s annual direct and indirect taxes paid to the Government
of Anambra State and the Federal Government of Nigeria, the company
partly contributes to the NPF annual budgets including its 2020
budget of N408b. The NPF annual budgets including its 2020 budget
of N408b are made up of funds raised from citizens’ direct and
indirect taxes, oil and gas proceeds and borrowings secured on
behalf of the generality of Nigerian citizens by Government.
We therefore boldly ask the IGP and his ‘Special
Tactical Squad’ the following questions: Was the Best
Aluminum CEO truly found with a pistol and if true, was it his or
planted? Since ‘any citizen can possess
personal firearms in Nigeria with licenses’, at what point in time
did the IGP and his STS get wind of suspicion that the Best
Aluminum CEO, who is the second in command of the three family
brothers was possessing illegal firearm or
pistol? Was he duly invited or given
chance by the IGP and his STS to provide its license or otherwise?
What if he was duly licensed to possess the short gun or pistol in
consideration of his societal status and in recognition of
protection of his rights to life and self defense? What if he was
properly licensed and has gone for renewal and was told to wait and
allowed to maintain status quo?
Was there any valid evidence before the IGP
and his STS, before the arrest and shameful public parading,
showing that the Best Aluminum CEO has used the pistol to commit
the offense of armed robbery, or kidnapping, or murder, or
attempted murder, or heinous domestic violence? If the IGP and his
STS can be this “professionally quick” in response in apprehending
such a man of high societal and entrepreneurial value for
possessing a pistol, why are the same IGP and his STS turning blind
eyes, if not aiding the Jihadist Herdsmen who go about with
recklessness in broad day light brandishing automatic rifles
including AK-47 and AK-49 rifles in the streets and machine and sub
machine guns in the bushes or forests? What about the five AK-47
rifles caught borne by some Jihadist Herdsmen recently in Awka
North LGA of Anambra State, as a result of which the President of
Ohanaeze Ndigbo petitioned the same IGP? What is the fate of the
petition and where are the five AK-47s?
Finally, the ordeal now befalling the Best Aluminum
CEO should serve as a lesson to all and sundry particularly members
of the rich and political class. It is specifically a reminder
to the leadership of
Intersociety concerning an encounter we had with him
in 2013. As an apologist of today’s rich
men’s exploitative and oppressive tendencies, the CEO of
Best Aluminum had sometime same year oppressed one Pastor Sylvester
Agu, to the point of forcefully taking over his parcel of land
located at the Nkisi River bank in Onitsha GRA; after pulling down
his dwelling house and killing his domestic livestock.
The Best Aluminum CEO had conspired with the State
Ministry of Lands to chase the said Pastor Agu out of his land,
using his wealth, connection and intimidation. In the end, through
now Barr Justus Uche
Ijeoma, Intersociety ended up recovering
the N500, 000 extorted from the Pastor by the officials of the
Anambra State Ministry of Lands. It was, therefore, Pastor
Sylvester Agu of Ezinifite-Aguata yesterday as the
victim of the Best Aluminum’s ‘man’s inhumanity to fellow man’;
today, the same Best Aluminum CEO has become a victim of
same injustice meted to his victim seven years ago.
We hereby call on the IGP and his STS to purge
themselves of the shame they brought to themselves in the instant
case and as a matter of uttermost immediacy, un-conditionality and
inexcusability release the Best Aluminum CEO, Mr. Pius Nweke. The
IGP and his ‘Special Tactical Squad’ must also totally refrain from
dastardly act.
The Int’l Society for Civil Liberties &
Rule of Law-INTERSOCIETY has no problem with exercise
of ‘power of arrest’ by the High Command of the Nigeria Police
Force with respect to 5th June 2020 arrest of Mr.
Pius Nweke (CEO, Best Aluminum Manufacturing Company Nigerian
Limited, Awada, Anambra State). Power of Arrest, provided in the
country’s Criminal Code Act of 2004 (for Southern Nigeria) and
Penal Code Act of 2004(for Northern Nigeria), is a common
responsibility the NPF and its leadership share with every citizen
of Nigeria that has reached the legal age of 18. The Nigeria Police
Force’s ‘power of arrest’ is granted by Section 4 of the Nigeria
Police Force & Regulations, CAP P19 LFN, 2004.
The ‘Power of Arrest’ by every Nigerian citizen of
legal age including the personnel of the Nigeria Police Force,
granted by the country’s body of criminal laws, is given to the
citizens in furtherance of their constitutional duties and
responsibilities clearly outlined by Section 24 of the Constitution
and strengthening of their rights to life in Section 33
of the Constitution and self defense in Sections 32(3) of the
Nigerian Criminal Code Act of 2004 (applicable in Southern Nigeria)
and 59 of the Penal Code Act (applicable in Northern Nigeria).
However, our deep grouses against the Inspector
General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar Adamu and his “Special
Tactical Squad” are the Gestapo (secret terror state police) and
commando styles used in carrying out the arrest. Beyond the
aforesaid, the most undoing of the IGP and his “STS” personnel was
the public parading of the Best Aluminum CEO as if he is ‘a
hardened kidnapper caught in the act’. This is not only a height of
unprofessionalism but also an indication that the Nigeria Police
Force is terminally sick.
It is recalled that Mr. Pius Nweke was waylaid
and abducted by the IGP’s ‘Special Tactical Squad’ along the
Anambra Broadcasting Service-Shoprite area of the Onitsha GRA on
Friday, 5th June 2020. He was taken to the Onitsha
Central Police Station (CPS) where he was held and later released
and asked to report next morning, from where he was taken to the
Force Headquarters where he is currently being detained. The Police
said his vehicle was searched and a pistol found and that he
possesses the short gun “illegally”.
Going by the country’s 1999 Constitution and
its subsidiary criminal legislations as well as relevant treaty
(international) laws ratified or domesticated by Nigeria,
a criminal who is of legal age or 18
years is not a criminal until he or she completely and
sequentially goes through the processes of investigation, arrest,
prosecution, fair trial, conviction and sentencing. But in the case
of the commando styled arrest and ‘caught-in-the-act-kidnapper’
public parading of Mr. Pius Nweke, the Nigeria Police Force has
ended up ‘arresting’, ‘judging’ and ‘finding him guilty’.
By publicly parading him in such despicable manner;
with his two hands handcuffed and forced to hold a pistol, bullets
and a mobile phone; the Police authorities have told the world a
different story. This was done by portraying him as ‘a hardened
kidnapper caught in the act’. The despicable manner with
which the Nigeria Police Force arrested and treated the Best
Aluminum CEO also gravely violates his constitutionally guaranteed
rights to life, dignity of human person, personal liberty and fair
hearing; all contained in Sections 33, 34, 35 and 36 of the
country’s 1999 Constitution.
The Force is so terminally sick that it has now
turned its constitutional and statutory duties and criminal laws of
Nigeria offside down by protecting the guilt and punishing the
innocent; which it now does with utter vehemence and
rabid impunity; to the extent that those who commit heinous crimes
are spared and the innocent or law abiding deadly targeted. Part of
our fear in the above state terrorization of the law abiding
citizens is the possibility of forcing them including the CEO of
Best Aluminum into becoming agents of the Caliphs and enemies of
their own people.
In the area of ‘possession of unlicensed firearms’,
the Nigeria’s Firearms Act, CAP F28 LFN, 2004 is the appropriate
law in place. The Act categorizes firearms into “prohibited
firearms” and “un-prohibited firearms”. In its Section 3,
‘prohibited firearms’ include ‘personal firearms’, also called ‘non
muzzle-loading firearms’. Included in their list are ‘non
muzzle-loading pistols, borne by private persons or civilians,
etc.
Section 4 of the Act guarantees the right of any
Nigerian of legal age to bear ‘personal firearms’ of ‘non
muzzle-loading’ category, provided they are licensed by the
Inspector Gen of Police, subject to acceptance or otherwise of
their licenses by the President. By Section 5 of the Act, any
Nigerian citizen of legal age is entitled to bear any
‘muzzle-loading firearm’ or ‘un-prohibited firearms’; provided they
are licensed by “the Commissioner of Police of a State, subject to
acceptance or otherwise of their licenses by a State Governor.
By the Robbery & Firearms Act, CAP R11, LFN, 2004;
“firearms” include ‘any canon, gun, rifle, carbine,
machine gun, cap-gun, flint-lock gun, revolver, pistol, explosive
or ammunition or other firearm, whether whole or in detached
pieces’. By Section 1 of same Act, a citizen tried and
convicted of robbery is liable to minimum of 21 years imprisonment,
if he or she robbed without firearms and if caught robbing with
firearms, he or she is liable to death sentence. The same death
sentence applies to a citizen tried and convicted of
kidnapping.
However, according to Section 3 of the referenced
Robbery and Firearms Act of 2004, a person tried and found guilty
for ‘illegal possession of firearms’ is liable to ‘10 years
imprisonment or payment of N20, 000 fine or both’. In the Nigerian
body of criminal laws, gravity of offense is determined by number
of years in prison term. That is to say that ‘accusation of illegal
possession of firearms, with ten years prison term, is not the same
with offenses of ‘murder’, ‘terrorism’, ‘kidnapping’ and ‘armed
robbery’ which attract death penalty or life imprisonment.
Therefore, the highlights above are to bring to the
fore the grave unprofessionalism and ‘bad job’ done by the IGP and
his ‘STS’ in the matter under reference. Going by commando nature
of the ambushed arrest, the motives of the IGP and his STS are
utterly dubious and lacking in professionalism, honesty and
neutrality. Put differently, the ambushed arrest and hurried public
parading of the CEO of Best Aluminum are a clear indication of
‘giving a dog a bad name so as to hang it’. As a matter of fact,
the Inspector General of Police and his ‘Special Tactical Squad’
acted as if ‘they are hired private militias.
The Police authorities also acted like gangsters by
engaging in a clear plot of attempting to destroy the image of such
a man of age with track records of entrepreneurship who is also a
major employer of labour with over 30 years standing. Through his
company’s annual direct and indirect taxes paid to the Government
of Anambra State and the Federal Government of Nigeria, the company
partly contributes to the NPF annual budgets including its 2020
budget of N408b. The NPF annual budgets including its 2020 budget
of N408b are made up of funds raised from citizens’ direct and
indirect taxes, oil and gas proceeds and borrowings secured on
behalf of the generality of Nigerian citizens by Government.
We therefore boldly ask the IGP and his ‘Special
Tactical Squad’ the following questions: Was the Best
Aluminum CEO truly found with a pistol and if true, was it his or
planted? Since ‘any citizen can possess
personal firearms in Nigeria with licenses’, at what point in time
did the IGP and his STS get wind of suspicion that the Best
Aluminum CEO, who is the second in command of the three family
brothers was possessing illegal firearm or
pistol? Was he duly invited or given
chance by the IGP and his STS to provide its license or otherwise?
What if he was duly licensed to possess the short gun or pistol in
consideration of his societal status and in recognition of
protection of his rights to life and self defense? What if he was
properly licensed and has gone for renewal and was told to wait and
allowed to maintain status quo?
Was there any valid evidence before the IGP
and his STS, before the arrest and shameful public parading,
showing that the Best Aluminum CEO has used the pistol to commit
the offense of armed robbery, or kidnapping, or murder, or
attempted murder, or heinous domestic violence? If the IGP and his
STS can be this “professionally quick” in response in apprehending
such a man of high societal and entrepreneurial value for
possessing a pistol, why are the same IGP and his STS turning blind
eyes, if not aiding the Jihadist Herdsmen who go about with
recklessness in broad day light brandishing automatic rifles
including AK-47 and AK-49 rifles in the streets and machine and sub
machine guns in the bushes or forests? What about the five AK-47
rifles caught borne by some Jihadist Herdsmen recently in Awka
North LGA of Anambra State, as a result of which the President of
Ohanaeze Ndigbo petitioned the same IGP? What is the fate of the
petition and where are the five AK-47s?
Finally, the ordeal now befalling the Best Aluminum
CEO should serve as a lesson to all and sundry particularly members
of the rich and political class. It is specifically a reminder
to the leadership of
Intersociety concerning an encounter we had with him
in 2013. As an apologist of today’s rich
men’s exploitative and oppressive tendencies, the CEO of
Best Aluminum had sometime same year oppressed one Pastor Sylvester
Agu, to the point of forcefully taking over his parcel of land
located at the Nkisi River bank in Onitsha GRA; after pulling down
his dwelling house and killing his domestic livestock.
The Best Aluminum CEO had conspired with the State
Ministry of Lands to chase the said Pastor Agu out of his land,
using his wealth, connection and intimidation. In the end, through
now Barr Justus Uche
Ijeoma, Intersociety ended up recovering
the N500, 000 extorted from the Pastor by the officials of the
Anambra State Ministry of Lands. It was, therefore, Pastor
Sylvester Agu of Ezinifite-Aguata yesterday as the
victim of the Best Aluminum’s ‘man’s inhumanity to fellow man’;
today, the same Best Aluminum CEO has become a victim of
same injustice meted to his victim seven years ago.
We hereby call on the IGP and his STS to purge
themselves of the shame they brought to themselves in the instant
case and as a matter of uttermost immediacy, un-conditionality and
inexcusability release the Best Aluminum CEO, Mr. Pius Nweke. The
IGP and his ‘Special Tactical Squad’ must also totally refrain from
dastardly act.