New Telegraph

#EndSARS: Police burnt my brother’s house, demanded N1m –Petitioner

‘Victim neither seen nor released since Aug 2020’

A cosmetics dealer, Mr. Udeze Kalu, yesterday told the Abia State Panel of Inquiry on Police Brutality and other related matters, how a policeman demanded N1 million to release his detained brother, Uchechi Agwu Kalu, even after burning down his house.

The policeman is attached to the Azuka Police Station, Aba Udeze said at the resumed hearing in the case between the petitioner and the Commissioner of Police, Abia State, DPO Azuka Police Station, Ogbor Hill, Aba, Officer Edet (leader of Anti-Kidnapping Unit, Aba Area Command), Officer Ike-chukwu Egbulom (Oracle) and Officer Yellow that he was called on the phone on August 11, 2020 by his cousin, Emeka Obasi, who informed him that his younger brother, Uchechi, was beaten in his house by the police, and was taken away while bleeding.

The petitioner said Emeka also told him the police shot dead one other person called Ndubuisi and burnt down the house. He said: “I asked Emeka if he knew the policemen who took my brother, he said some of the officers he knew worked at Azuka Police Station.

“I called my sister, Elizabeth Agwu Kalu, to go to Azuka Police Station.” Udeze said he travelled from his base in Umuahia to Azuka Police Station where he met a woman who, on inquiry, told him that Uchechi was detained by the Anti-Kidnapping Unit and subsequently directed him to one Egbulonu Ikechukwu of the unit.

“He asked me if I came with money, I told him that was not a problem that I came to know why my brother was arrested. “He asked me to bring N1 million. I asked him, what did my brother do that would warrant such an amount. “He excused himself as he wanted to see their boss. He came back with a man called ‘Oracle’ who told me that my brother is not with them.

“I returned to Umuahia and reported to the Human Rights Commission, Abia chapter. The commission wrote to the Commissioner of Police, they also took me to Azuka Police Station, Aba, where we met the DPO. The commission pleaded with him to open the cells so they could check if Uchechi was there but he refused. “We returned to Umuahia, went to the Public Complaint Commission, Abia chapter led by Barrister Chukwuemeka Nwaogu, the police still refused to release my brother. We also wrote to the AIG Zone 9. Since then, we have not seen Uchechi,” the petitioner said.

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