The Imo NBA wants a police officer charged with assault and unlawfully detaining a member.
The Assistant Commissioner of Police, David Ogenyi, of the Police Area Command in Owerri, is accused of assaulting, humiliating, torturing, and unlawfully detaining one of its members, Chigozie Chinaka. The Nigerian Bar Association in Imo State has strongly denounced this behavior.
During a press conference held at the Nigerian Bar Association’s secretariat in Owerri, the capital of Imo State, Allinor Ugochukwu, the state chairman of the association, urged Inspector General of Police Kayode Egbetokun to take appropriate action and, in the interim, suspend ACP David Ogenyi and the relevant officers to ensure a comprehensive and impartial investigation.
Chigozie Chinaka, the victim, told journalists what happened between him and the police. He claimed that while doing his legal duty—requesting the bail of a client who had been arrested and detained earlier—ACP Ogenyi and certain Owerri Municipal Command officers beat him to a pulp and stripped him naked.
The NBA called on the IGP to get involved and form an impartial panel to look into the claims of police abuse and unlawful arrest of their own members.
The accusations made by the attorney have been characterized as malicious and false by the Imo State Police Command.
Henry Okoye, the Imo State Police Command’s public relations officer, stated in an interview with Channels Television that the lawyer’s testimony is a very different description of what actually happened.
But he added that the state’s commissioner of police has formed an inquiry team to look into the situation.
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