By Harris Emanuel
A 90-year-old man, Obong Ene Iso has slammed a suit against some police officers over alleged extortion amounting to the sum of #300,000 and unlawful detention.
Obong Ene in the suit stated that one Chinedu Eme of AIG Zone 6 Monitoring Unit Police Zonal Office Calabar and other officers extorted various sums of money from him.
His counsel, Uduak Okon said the matter arose after one Ime Ita Ekpenyong(alias Matthew Dominic Ime) named as the first respondent forged court papers which he used to grab peoples’ lands including that of his client.
The applicant’s counsel said his client reported the case of forgery, impersonation and organization of a system of intimidation to the Akwa Ibom State Command of the Nigeria Police Force and the first respondent(Ekpenyong) was arrested but later released under controversial circumstances through the instrumentation of some officers from the Zone 6 Command of the Nigeria Police.
According to him, the first respondent(Ekpenyong) afterwards used the same zonal police to arrest the applicant through allegations of forcible entry into the land which the first respondent is laying claim with forged documents of title including forged court processes.
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The council said after his client was arrested, the police officers began extorting him of over 300,000 naira, adding that relatives of his client who visited the zonal command were arrested including the son.
‘He said, ”Each time my client appears at Calabar Zone with members of his family, they would be arrested and money extorted. In the last occasion which was on the 8th of June, the police ransacked them and took 40,000 naira from them.
”As if it was not enough, they demanded that it should be up to 50,000 and they detained my client who is 90 years old and the man had to call his son to transfer additional 10,000 into the police officer’s account which the son did and the evidence of the transfer is there.”
However, the first respondent, Ime Ita Ekpenyong allias Matthew Dominic Peter, second respondent, Chinedu Eme, third respondent, The Assistant Inspector General of Police (Zone 6 Zonal Command, Calabar), fourth respondent, Inspector General of Police and fifth respondent, The Minister of Police Affairs, did not appear in court which had earlier ordered for the arrest of the said police officer Chinedu Eme for hearing.
But the Vacation Court in Uyo presided over by Justice Nkereuwem Obot frowned at the actions of the respondents which amounted to contempt of the court, saying that necessary action would be accorded.
The matter was later adjourned to 5th October 2020 for another hearing.
