The family of Pastor Festus Osayemwenre Egharevba, the incarcerated Secretary of Agho-Ozomu and members of the community in Ovia Northeast Local Government Area of Edo State has cried out to relevant authorities to come to their rescue from the hands of AIG Zone 5 headquarters.

They made a strong allegation against the zonal police that certain top officers has conspired together to tamper with evidences in order to nail the founder of Amazing Dawn Gospel Ministry, Benin City. They also accused the gullible officers of deliberately clinging on to the case file by failing to transmit it to the Director of Public Prosecution, DPP as required by the law in serious crimes like kidnapping, attempted murder and promotion of communal war preferred against the pastor.

The core functions of the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) include prosecution of those charged by the police and other investigative agencies with criminal offences while upholding, protecting and promoting human and constitutional rights.

However, in this scenario the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, zone 5 has failed, refused and or neglected to duplicate the file and forward it to the DPP for legal advice since July 5 when Pastor Egharevba was arraigned in the high court and remanded in prison.

Because of this deliberate act tongues are wagging that the AIGP, Mr Arungua Udo Nwauzei and the DCP, Zonal CID. Mr Faniyan Ayodeji with whom the detainee had a clash last March when he wrote an indicting petition against him for vested interest are seeking a pound of flesh.

It was gathered by Newsmint within the police that the Agho-Ozomu representative faulted the actions of Ayodeji for also charging him to court then without investigating igbobi's petition such as failing to visit scene of crime, search for or recovery of gun, delving into land matters that was before a court of competent jurisdiction, asserting that it was possible for him to be in Igbobi bush committing crime with others on a date just six days after he buried his late wife and determining that he was not an indigene of Agho-Ozomu village simply because he hails from the motherline.

The clergyman was arrested and detained since the 27th June 2024 on wild allegations by Igbobi community of being involved in kidnapping, malicious damage, attempted murder, gun-running and promoting communal war at the same time. JUST ONE MAN AGAINST ALL?

The intrigue in the case is the inability of the complainants to establish or prove any iota of truth in their motley crowd of criminal allegations against him yet the Police capitalized on the privilege of owning powers to investigate and prosecute to charge Pastor Festus Egharevba to court.

For instance, there was no available evidence of a kidnapped victim, ransom demanded, gun recovered from him or involvement in any malicious damage whereas the story was the other way round.

Our investigation revealed that on the 24th May 2024, Pastor Festus received many telephone calls in the morning from inhabitants and elders that Agho-Ozomu was under armed siege by her Igbobi neighbour.

When the calls became constant he called on the Commissioner of Police, Edo State Command, Funsho Adegboye and the Commander, 4 Mechanized Brigade, Brigadier-General Oduyebo to rescue his people at home. They promptly responded and the joint team intervened and arrested six members of Igbobi community including three hired thugs.

The army, who took custody of the assailants handed them over to the State CID in Benin City after a preliminary investigation of about a week which yielded arms and ammunition from the culprits. The State Police however released the suspects immediately because it used a pending Igbobi petition at the CP's Surveillance Unit to receive them.

But as CP Adegboye became aware of the underhand manipulations going on he ordered that Igbobi produce the suspects and both parties come before him to an interview for further evaluation.

When Igbobi people saw that their dirty chess game was unraveled they ran as usual to a willing and supportive AIG Zone 5 Headquarters with a petition This resulted in the State Command transferring the case and Pastor Festus Egharevba to the zone but without the suspects.

The counter-petition by Agho-Ozomu community also to the CP had made both parties complainants and suspects at the same time. Igbobi only went to the Adesuwa Road headquarters with the elders hoping to enjoy free ride as the new complainants.

However, the officer-in-charge of the Admin section that handled the petition asked the investigatiing police officer, IPO. one Inspector Nosa, who treated it initially at the CP's Surveillance to return back until he produce the suspects released on bail.

Our correspodent, Peter Osaigbovo, further gathered that the Agho-Ozomu Secretary was allowed to go home. He daily submitted himself at the police zonal office until 27th July when the Deputy Commissioner, Zonal CID, Mr Faniyan Ayodeji personally came down from his storey office to receive him and ordered his detention. He was unwilling to allow the detainee, who was recently bereaved of his wife to receive medical treatment in his failing health even when he collapsed.

Grapevine sources within the police says that Mr Faniyan Ayodeji and the AIGP are angry with Pastor Egharevba because he sued them at the Federal High Court, Benin City in their official and private capacities for violating his fundamental human rights together with some elders of Igbobi community after refusing him bail. Ordinarily when a case is before a court the respondents ought to respond to it first before any other action.

But as soon as they received the court summons they hurriedly arranged an interview superintended by the AIG himself where he lashed at the clergy for being in the habit of writing petitions and that his resort to the army on the 24th May was only a selfhelp. The police did not bother to visit both communities for the on-the-spot assessment to know the real offenders but adopted armchair investigation and compilation of case file within its premises. All the alibi adduced by the defendant were ignored.

Even though the Divisional Police Officer of Evbotubu Division who the CP, Edo State asked to respond with his men on receipt of an SOS came, wrote a statement and testified before the AIG at the interview exonerating Pastor Festus Egharevba of being near any of the communities and pointing accusing fingers at Igbobi where the police and soldiers encountered over 100 persons fully armed with guns and other dangerous weapons, the AIG instructed Mr Faniyan Ayodeji to press charges against him immediately.

When Newsmint sought the opinion of some legal experts who claimed that failing to transmit a case file where a suspect has been charged to court and remanded is a violation of the fundamental right of a citizen, a flagrant abuse of police powers and an unwillingness to prosecute which is subject to an abrupt ruling in the court if the suspect's counsel pressed on.

A member of the Agho-Ozomu community, Mr Simon Ojo alleged that they are appalled that Igbobi vigilante and thugs were the ones who carried out three consecutive attacks on them in one day, yet the police chose to turn a blind eye with monumental evidences against them.

Another indigene, Mr Moses Okiemute claimed the unassailable facts provided by Pastor Festus Egharevba could only earn the Igbobi suspects low charges which are easily bailable while punishing the innocent with a,felonious and unbailable offence like kidnapping that never took place. According to him they just did that for a face-saving purpose since the target was their man who has stood as a solid defence for many years against igbobi's attempt to overrun a community five kilometres away.

A Benin based legal practitioner who asked Newsmint not to disclose his identity opined that in this particular case the primary suspects, if really there was a kidnap, should have been those who went with the alleged victim to the bush before looking elsewhere. He also asked if the allegation was incidented in the nearest police station and what was the action taken by the police against the suspect before forwarding a petition to the Commissioner of police.

A family source who craved anonymity says their bread-winner languishing in jail without trial got into trouble when he refused to accept the twenty plots dangled at him in December 2023 by Igbobi leaders to ditch Agho-Ozomu for a joint sale of Ozomus communal lands. One Mr John Enobakhare, his uncle and a retired DSS Assistant Director, an ACP equivalent, who defected to Igbobi last year persuaded him to accept the carrots to no avail. He is now leading the onslaught on his native land, Ozomu. For being adamant the activist-pastor has incurred at least six petitions and arrests this year alone.

Another Ozomu indigene who gave his namel simply as Osahon told Newsmint that the case was already being treated by the Force CID, Abuja based on a petition by the counsel to Agho-Ozomu to the Inspector-General of Police in April protesting the conduct of Mr Faniyan Ayodeji in the matter.

Igbobi however failed to honour a written invitation to Abuja on 30th April 2024 after an investigation commenced with a scene of crime visit to Agho-Ozomu to record the four months colossal damages brazenly carried out by Igbobi invaders, see attached videos made available by them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbsgEZ0xtdA?si=_9ePOE5My_31rk2t
FCID investigators inspecting one of large oil palm plantations destroyed by Igbobi invaders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0ZYT5mD2ko?si=oCYp638FRxS2nJUN
Indigenes taken FCID inspectors through cassava farms destroyed at Agho-Ozomu.

Instead the helpers and proppers in the police force encouraged Igbobi with a vicious circle by recycling the same old petition all over.

All efforts to obtain a response from the Zone's PRO failed to yield result at the time of going to press.

Nigeria is getting bad every blessed day.
It may get to Sri Lanka soon