The police gangster arrest of Uche Nwosu

IN a Nigeria riven by kidnapping attacks, it was understandable that the arrest of the candidate of the Action Alliance (AA) in the 2019 governorship election in Imo State, Uche Nwosu, was initially presumed to be an abduction. The videos that went viral following the incident did not help matters: they showed Nwosu being forcefully taken from the St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Eziama-Obaire, in Nkwerre Local Council of the state. The perpetrators brought to bear on that process all the known trappings of a violent abduction. Masked and reportedly about 15 in number, they invaded the hallowed grounds of the church during a Sunday service. They shot sporadically into the air, overpowered Nwosu’s security details, bundled him into their vehicle, then sped off recklessly. His wife and relatives were also said to have been assaulted by the rampaging officers.

In a bid to dispel the notion that he was abducted by unknown assailants, the Imo State Commissioner of Police (CP), Rabiu Hussaini, through the office of the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Michael Abattam, stated that Nwosu, who also happens to be a son-in-law to former Governor Rochas Okorocha, was indeed arrested by the police. “This is to refute the earlier report that he was kidnapped by unknown gunmen. Hussaini assured Imo people of the command’s commitment to ensuring the safety of life and property during the Yuletide season and urged members of the public to always shun fake news,” the PPRO said. When the agency behind Nwosu’s ordeal became public knowledge, the Christian community expressed indignation at the incident. For instance, the Catholic Bishop of Orlu Diocese, Augustine Ukwuoma, said: “The apparent desecration of a place of worship at St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Eziama Obaire, Nkwerre Local Government Area on Sunday 26th December is a new low in the Nigerian polity. We are living in a violent and tensed-up society. Therefore, any action that is capable of escalating the stress in the society should be avoided. One wonders how long it will take before that worshiping community gets over the trauma occasioned by this sad incident.”

In addition, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) condemned the manner of Nwosu’s arrest, saying that the police acted like terrorists or kidnappers and urging the Police Service Commission (PSC) to investigate the “unprofessional conduct of the operatives of the Imo State police.” Instructively, after his release by the police, Nwosu said he did not receive any prior invitation from the police and wondered why he had to be subjected to the disgraceful and demeaning treatment that he suffered. Later developments showed that the police hinged his arrest on a purported confession by a young man who alleged that he was a major sponsor of the violence that had gripped the state since the coming into office of the incumbent governor, Hope Uzodinma.

We are horrified by the lawless action in Eziama-Obaire. The kind of spectacle that the police treated the country to should happen only in a banana republic, not in a country which professes the rule of law. Regardless of the alleged crime for which Nwosu was arrested, invading a church service in such gangster fashion was patently provocative. Why did the police not pursue the much more civilised process of extending an invitation to the accused? If he refused to honour the invitation, then the police would be justified in forcefully bringing him before the law. Even then, turning a church service into a theatre of war would have been objectionable. The action by the Imo State police command becomes even more benumbing when it is realised that the state has been a jungle since Governor Uzodinma’s assumption of office. Any replication of the modus operandi of kidnappers and other violent non-state actors was bound to wreak psychological trauma on the family of the victim and eyewitnesses. This draconian method was the tradition of military despots in the past.

Truth be told, Nigeria is a country where impunity has become the order of the day and has no consequences. Were Nigeria to be a society where gangsterism in the name of arrest attracted sanctions, the officers behind this Stone Age incident would by now be facing dismissal from service and possible prosecution in the court of law. Indeed, why would the police not pursue this condemnable path when the Federal Government itself has been implicated in serial constitutional infringements? To redeem their battered image, the authorities of the Nigeria Police must begin the process of sanctioning all the officers involved in the shameful incident. This is the redemptive path to take in wiping away the pains occasioned by the infamy that occurred in Imo State.