An Abuja-based lawyer and human rights activist, Pelumi Olajengbesi, on Monday, lambasted the Nigeria Police Force for conducting its operations like kidnappers and unknown gunmen.
The lawyer described as shameful, the arrest of Uche Nwosu, a son-in-law to an ex-governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, in a Gestapo style by the police.
He added that the action of the police threatened the ideals of democracy and the Force hierarchies should do all to bring the erring officers to book.
Olajengbesi made this known in a statement just as the police released Nwosu 24 hours after masked security operatives whisked him away during a church service on Sunday at his hometown, Eziama Obieri, in the Nkwerre Local Government Area of Imo State.
The statement was titled, ‘Nigeria Police Force Gestapo style arrest of Uche Nwosu is an embarrassment to Nigeria Justice System’.
It read in part, “The Nigeria Police Force’s conduct in the forceful arrest and apprehension of Chief Uche Nwosu is shameful, unprofessional and smacks of obstinate hooliganism, and hereby stands strongly condemned. Their mode of arrest has all the markings of kidnappers and ‘unknown gunmen’, leaving more questions than answers in the struggle to unravel the latter menace.
“As a rule of operation, men of the Nigeria Police Force are not only required to properly identify themselves before effecting an arrest but must be backed by the force of law in the form of a warrant of arrest properly executed. In the arrest of Chief Uche Nwosu who interestingly is a former gubernatorial candidate in the state of his arrest, police officers dressed in muftis stormed the victim’s church where they reportedly shot sporadically scaring churchgoers and put lives and limbs in danger as many scrambled for safety.
