NHRC panel orders police to release bus, speed boats, others to Merchant Navy Coast Guard

The independent investigative panel on rights violations by the defunct SARS and other police units sitting in Abuja has ordered the police to release all properties seized from an officer of the Nigerian Merchant Navy Coast Guard, even as the police alleged that the organisation has no law to operate.

The panel gave the order following the plea of Commodore Allen Edema to that, alleging that the police asked him to pay N600,000 before his properties would be released to him.

The items seized by the police, according to him, were four Mistubishi L300 buses; two-speed boats; passports and other valuable documents belonging to him.

Testifying before the panel, presides over by Dr Garba Tetengi SAN, on behalf of its chairman, Justice Suleiman Galadima (retd), Edema alleged that in 2008 the Nigeria Navy in a joint operation with the police, invaded his head office in Lagos, arrested him and seized his properties in Lagos.

He said that since his release, the police had refused to hand over the said properties to him despite the court’s orders to that effect.

Asked by counsel for the respondents, Fidelis Ogbobe, under cross-examination, to state which law or act mandates the organisation to operate, Commodore Edema said that there was a bill before the House of Representatives for the establishment of the organisation.

Also under cross-examination by Ogbobe, Chika Okereke, a Lieutenant and member of the organisation, told the panel that the Nigerian Merchant Navy Coast Guard had been proscribed, leading to the closing of its head office in Lagos and invasion of the training school in Idah, Kogi State.

According to him, “On 28th April 2014, a joint task force of the Police, Navy, Army and Civil Defence invaded the Nigerian Merchant Navy Coast Guard training centre in Idah, Kogi State and killed 11 persons during the invasion of the training centre.”

Another member of the organisation, Lawrence Ibiam, also a Lieutenant, explained that he joined the Nigerian Merchant Navy Coast Guard in 2006 and he had been working without receiving a salary.

On further probe by the panel on how he survives, he disclosed that he was working as a security man at Watchman Church.

Meanwhile, while defending himself, one of the respondents in the petition, DSP Azuka Oboni, who was led by police counsel, Fidelis Ogbobe, informed that in 2008, officers of the Nigerian Navy arrested Commodore Edema and seven others and brought them to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Command of the Nigerian Police Force.

According to him, the Navy alleged that Commodore Edema and others were impersonating the Nigerian Navy and also wearing their uniform, tempering with naval activities on waterways and having illegal possession of naval equipment.

DSP Oboni further told the panel that he was the IPO assigned to investigate the allegations against Edema and others, adding that he wrote to the National Assembly to inquire about the operations of the Nigerian Merchant Navy Coast Guard.

According to him, from their response received from the National Assembly, it was discovered that there was no law backing the organisation’s existence, meaning that it was operating illegally.

The respondent told the panel set up by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that those handed over to the police by the Navy were subsequently charged to court, which refused to grant them bail.

He disclosed to the panel that Commodore Edema jumped bail by refusing to show up at the court more than three times.

The petition has been adjourned to March 22 for the adoption of written addresses. The panel gave counsels to both parties three days each to file their addresses.

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