By Okey Nwanguma
NOPRIN is a network of 46 civil
society organisations spread across
Nigeria and committed to promoting
police accountability and respect for
human rights. It was set up in 2000
to provide opportunity for civil
society input to police reform and
the enhancement of safety, security
and justice.
NOPRIN is constrained to write you
this open letter and to use its
medium to express the utter shock
of its network members over the
continued unlawful, arbitrary and
unjustifiable detention of Chief
Bonaventure Mokwe at the Special
Anti Robbery Squad (SARS),
Awkuzu, Anambra State since
August 1, 2013 despite irrefutable
evidence that the allegation over
which he was arrested and being
indefinitely detained is clearly
fabricated and malicious.
You will recall that the police
arrested Chief Bonaventure Mokwe
after a stage-managed police search
of his UPPER CLASS HOTEL in
Onitsha on August 1, 2013 and
the ‘recovery’ of incriminating
objects, including two old dry
human skulls, two AK47 riffles and
some ammunition, as well as a
military cap.
The police also arrested 10 of his
hotel workers, including Mr. Justin
Nwankwo a PhD student at the
Nnamdi Azikiwe University who
works in the hotel to earn income to
pay for his academic program.
The police then proceeded to the
Anambra State Ministry of Justice,
Onitsha where Chief Mokwe’s wife-
Mrs. Nkiru Mokwe, a lawyer, works
as a Chief State Counsel and also
arrested her.
Chief Mokwe and his wife were
brought back in handcuffs, left in a
police vehicle parked opposite his
hotel and made to watch as the
hotel was pulled down to rubbles on
your orders and under your
personal supervision.
Recall that you ordered the
demolition of the hotel without any
prior investigation to ascertain the
veracity and credibility of the
information you and the police
claimed to have received that Chief
Mokwe is a ‘ritualist’.
You carried out the demolition with
the aid of your security details and a
large number of Onitsha youths
whose leader has now been
identified as the kingpin in the set
up plot against Chief Mokwe.
Prior to the demolition, some police
officers had watched as a mob of
youth invaded, vandalised and
robbed several shops belonging to
Chief Mokwe's tenants in his Plaza
located beside the hotel.
In our earlier reaction to this sad
incident, we already stated and
hereby restate that your hasty
ordering of the demolition of the
hotel based on unverified
allegations and under the pretext of
fighting crimes in the state
subverted the due process. It was
an affront on the rule of law and
offensive to civilised democratic
governance.
We further stated that even if
investigation were to confirm the
allegations to be true, your action
would still be arbitrary, prejudicial,
reckless and unlawful because as
governor, you have no powers or
authority under any Nigerian law to
confiscate or order the demolition of
any citizen’s property without a
valid court order, unless we have to
accept that Anambra State under
you has turned into a jungle.
It is in this context that we find it
extremely saddening that
eventually-and as the Mokwes have
consistently maintained, Chief
Mokwe was framed up by some
businessmen acting for themselves
and on behalf of some powerful
people in authority in Anambra
State who see him as a rival, and
whose identities have now been
fully unravelled.
We are shocked that the police
continue to hold Chief Mokwe in
unlawful and prolonged detention
despite the lack of any shred of
evidence to substantiate the
allegation against him, and despite
the unravelling of the identities of
the people involved in the frame up.
The man who lodged and planted
the incriminating objects in room
102 of Upper Class Hotel and went
away with the room key has been
identified as one Mr. Olisa
Egbuchiem who checked into the
room under the disguised identity of
John Obi. His father is said to be in
the mortuary business for several
years.
Also identified as the chief plotter is
one Mr. Ayadi Mba who contracted
Mr. Olisa Egbuchiem to plant the
incriminating objects in the room.
Many others who played various
roles in the whole set up have also
been identified.
It is worthy of note that prior to
Chief Mokwe' arrest and the
demolition of his hotel, he had
written petitions to the police and
the Obi of Onitsha alerting them of
the invasion of his Plaza/Park by
some armed youths led by the self-
same Mr. Ayadi Mba. Mr. Ayadi
Mba was said to have assaulted,
injured and dispossessed traders at
the Plaza and also collected at gun
point all the money generated from
the day's business from the Plaza
caretakers.
Chief Mokwe had on several other
occasions alerted the police and
traditional authorities in the state
about persistent threats by this
same man and his gang, but no
action was taken by either the
police or traditional authorities
before this frame up leading to his
current ordeal.
In all the cases of threat and attack
which Chief Mokwe reported to the
police and to the Obi of Onitsha, the
same group of youths from
Umudei village in Onitsha were
involved. They were on all ocassions
led by Mr. Ayadi Mba who also
hails from Umudei village.
Following the incessant threats,
harassment and attacks by this
same Mr. Ayadi Mba on the life and
business of Chief Mokwe, and the
failure and neglect by the police and
the Obi of Onitsha to respond to his
written complaints, he approached
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