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The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre has again appealed to the Inspector General of Police, Baba Akali, to ensure that a thorough investigation of the allegations of organ harvesting and rights violations against two police formations in Anambra State.
The Executive Director, RULAAC, Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma, made this appeal while speaking at a meeting of Anambra Police Stakeholders Partnership Forum in Awka on yesterday
The meeting was aimed at interfacing between the group and family members and relatives of victims who had suffered alleged abuse by the police in the state.
The Eastern Updates recalls that some police officers at the Rapid Response Squad, Annexe, formerly Awkuzu SARS, and Zone 13 Headquarters, Ukpo, was a few weeks ago fingered to be involved in illegal detention, kidnappings, extrajudicial killings, and human organ harvesting by a whistleblower.
Following the allegations, the IGP subsequently set up a panel to investigate the matter.
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The state governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, on his part, asked the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice to review all case files handled by the accused police formations, RRS and Zone 13.
But months after the investigation panel team was announced by the Force PRO, Muyiwa Adejobi, nothing has yet to be heard from the panel, a situation which has become a cause for worry for civil society groups.
Speaking at the forum, Nwanguma expressed worry that more than one month after the allegations of unprofessional conducts were made against the two formations, nothing had been heard about the investigation, validity or otherwise, from the police authorities.
He said the group would like to meet with the IGP investigation team to monitor progress and ensure that the cases of human rights abuse on the citizens were not swept under the carpet.
He said probing the matter and making the findings public would go a long way to assure the public that police were their friend and that positive lessons had been learnt from the #EndSARS experience.
He said, ‘It is unfortunate that the things that gave rise to #EndSARS are still happening today. We still have cases of unlawful arrests, illegal detention, extortion and disappearance of people.
‘Here in Anambra, there was a story of organ harvesting by the RRS and serious human rights abuse by Zone 13 Headquarters, Ukpo. Sadly, nothing has been heard, and we understand that some of the accused are all back to their duty posts.
‘I want to appreciate the IGP for setting up an investigative panel on the matter, but we are worried by the silence of that committee, we want to meet with them and work with them.”
Nwanguma said respect for human rights is an irreducible minimum for policing a people in a civilised society.
