From Blessing Ibunge, Port Harcourt
Hon Okey Okirie, former Special Adviser to the former Governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has lamented threats to life by operatives of Eagle Crack Command, operating from Diobu Police station in Port Harcourt.
Hon Okirie who was Special Adviser on Strategy and Statistics to the former Governor, disclosed to newsmen in Port Harcourt yesterday that following the alleged threats and attacks by the policemen allegedly led by their Commander, Mr Benson Adetunyi, he and his family now live like fugitives in the state.
He narrated that one of his business partners, one Nwabueze Emeghara allegedly filed a fraudulent case against him at the E-Crack command to force him to release money meant for public project for his alleged embezzlement, adding that when he refused to release the money which would amount to fraud, they (E-Crack and Emeghara) all started harrasing him and his family.
He disclosed that the money was for contract awarded his company for Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, road construction project in Edo state and that when he realized on getting to the site that the money he was releasing to Emeghara was not properly used for the execution of the projects, he stopped and decided to carry on the construction of the project himself which did not pleased his partner (Emeghara) , hence he allegedly decided to use the E-Crack police team to force him release all the money in their company’s joint bank account.
Hon Okirie who was in tears and fear for his life while speaking with journalists, said his family have been separated just for their safety, adding that even when the matter is pending before the state High Court in Port Harcourt, the E-Crack police team continue to harass and threatens anyone who seem to be relating with him.
He said: “I am under serious threat. They go to my house beat up the security, cease their phones check whether we are into any conversation with them. As I talk to you my life and family are in danger. We live like fugitives. On December 29, 2019, on January 9, 2020 the E-Crack police team were in my house. Just last week Thursday, they went to the house when they did not see me, they invaded the house of the Chairman of the estate, called him out of his house and started flogging him. The policemen beat him to almost coma when the wife had to called senior police officers who came to rescue him from the E-Crack men.
‘If they can beat innocent person who did not commit any crime or have any case before then, that means when they see me or my wife that they have been accused innocently, probably they might kill us.
“They might kill me and my wife and alleged that we were killed during an exchange of gun battle, that is why I want to tell the world that Benson Adetunyi, his IPO, Insp Dominic Awusi and the Nwabueze Emeghara who reported are after my life and life of my family. If anything happens I want the world to know since October 2019 till today (January 21, 2020) I have not step foot in my house, I live like a fugitive, my wife and I are running away from one community to the other.”
He therefore call for the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari, Inspector General of Police, Governor Nyesom Wike, Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Attorney General of Rivers State, Amnesty International and all other human rights community to come to his aid, saying that the police team have caused him and his family so much pains in the past months.
“I am calling on the President of Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, the National Assembly, Inspector General of Police, the Police Service Commission, the Governor of Rivers State, the human rights community, Amnesty International and Commissioner of Police, to make sure that this type of officers, E-Crack police team should be called to order and that they should protect me and my family the harassment, intimidation of Benson Adetunyi and his cohort. My life and that of my family are being threatened, everyday we are running from one place to the other, living like fugitives”, Okirie lamented.
It would be recalled that the same police E-Crack team last week was accused of torturing an auto mechanic to death and charged for apprentice of the deceased to court for alleged robbery.
This incident has caused serious uproar in the state, as the owner of the said vehicle according to the police, came out publicly even to the police and said that the killed victim (Chima) was his mechanic and that his car was not stolen.
