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By Joseph Erunke, ABUJA
A miner in Imo State, Paul Okosisi, has petitioned the Police Service Commission (PSC) to caution the Police Area Commander in Ogboko, Ideato North Local Government Area of the State, ACP Julius Ahaneku, over alleged harassment and threat to the lives of citizens in the area.
In the petition dated January 18, 2023, and signed by his lawyer, Olajumoke Adebayo, Okosisi, further alleged that the Police Officer has constituted himself into a ‘terror’ in the community and has no regard for the law.
According to him, he had applied and obtained a grant from the Federal Government through the office of the Director of Mining Cadastral in Abuja, to mine the sand at Agwura and Urashi rivers in Ideato North LGA but some are indigenes backed by the Area Commander, invaded the mining site and carted away his equipment.
He explained that before the illegal invasion of the mining site by the Police Area Commander, the said indigenes had applied to the Mining Cadastral over the same site but we’re turned down, while he was upheld as the authentic holder of the grant.
Okosisi added that their application was rejected, the group and some armed thugs “accompanied by the Area Police Commander, invaded the mining site on December 6, 2022, broke into the gate and carted it to an unknown destination.
“Some of my workers were at the site at the time of the invasion and one of them recorded a video on his phone showing the Area Commander and his men shooting sporadically including the Police vehicle used for the operation”
The miner continued that, “on finding out about the video recording, the Area Commander ordered one Inspector Ernest Njoku to arrest the young man who recorded the video with a threat that he was going to make me and my children and the video recorder rot in detention”.
He noted further that the Area Commander would have made good his threat to deal with him and members of his family, “if not for the timely intervention of the Police Headquarters in Abuja”.
According to him, the Area Commander led another operation on January 18, 2023, at the mining site during which he pointed gun at his son, Chimezie Okosisi and threatened to shoot him if they did not vacate the site for the illegal miners to take over.
He also alleged that “the Police Officer also arrested two land owners during the operation and sternly warned them not to step their feet into the site again.
“Before these incidents, Okosisi said ACP Ahaneku had in August 2022 at the instigation of one of the illegal miners, and his cohorts arrested two of his children and slammed them with a phony charge of attempted murder”, adding that, while his sons were remanded in prison custody, the police and complainant abandoned the matter which was eventually struck out five months after”.
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