A popular human rights activist based in Anambra State, and, convener of Recover Nigeria Project, Comrade Osita Obi has taken the state police command to the cleaners concerning the continued missing of the vice-chairman of Dubai Estate, Awka, Mr. Benjamin Ezenma, popularly known as, “Big Ben”.
He told newsmen yesterday in a press conference in Awka that when he approached the state police command to find out the outcome of the investigation concerning the whereabouts of the 34 years old popular entrepreneur, the public relations officer of the police command (PPRO), superintendent of police, SP Tochukwu Ikenga told him that the command was not “aware” of Big Ben’s kidnap case.
The human rights activist said the state police command spokesman told him that it was only the kidnap of the member representing Onitsha-North constituency in the state Assembly, Hon. Justice Azuka who was kidnapped on last Christmas Eve that the command was investigating.
Comrade Obi knocked the state police command for abandoning the case of the 34 years popular Anambra State entrepreneur, Big Ben, arguing that the police owed it as a statutory duty to find the kidnapped Big Ben and ensure that his abductors faced the consequences of their actions according to the laws of the land.
Meanwhile, when LEADERSHIP contacted Ikenga on his mobile phone, he said that the state police command was aware of Big Ben’s kidnap case, but, said that it was the state command of the DSS that was handling the case.
When LEADERSHIP, however, asked him why the state police command was not also involved in the investigation, he instead kept mum.
Comrade Obi who expressed disappointment with the activities of the state police command, especially under the current commissioner of police, CP Nnaghe Itam said his investigation showed that the police in the state have abandoned their constitutional duties of protecting lives and properties for extorting innocent citizens, especially at the various road-blocks.
He, however, commended the state command of the DSS for charging some suspects to Court over the kidnap of Big Ben and tasked the media with effectively covering the trial so that the public would be properly informed and all the institutions involved in the case, including security agencies and the Court, held accountable.
“I don’t know Ben Ezenma in person. But I was told that he is 34 years old, and, he is the vice-chairman of Dubai Estate, Awka. He was kidnapped on 12th of November, 2024 here in Awka.
“We have the police, we have the DSS, we have the office of the National Security Adviser, let them tell us the whereabouts of Mr. Ben Ezenma.
“The government (and why say the government, I mean the federal government because state governments do not have control over the security agencies in their states) has the capacity to tell us the whereabouts of Ben Ezenma because he has a phone and SIM card.
“Let the security agencies go to the Nigerian Communications Commission and trace his whereabouts using his phone SIM card, that is the essence of the SIM registration. Let the security agencies: police, DSS, National Security Adviser go to the Nigeria Communications Commission and download from his phone call log all calls made on his phone in the past one year, from there they will know the whereabouts of Big Ben.
“I want to commend the DSS; they have done marvellously well because they are the ones prosecuting the matter in the Court. So journalists should go and cover the Court proceedings to let the public know what is happening. The presence of the members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm will force the Court to sit up.
“When I went to the public relations officer of the state police command, and, asked him what the command is doing about the kidnap of Ben, he told me that he was not aware that it is the DSS that is investigating the case. I am disappointed with the Anambra State police.
“What the police are now doing is extortion of motorists on the various check-points, so they don’t have time for surveillance again”, he lamented.
He warned that if police in the state do not turn a new leaf, he would be forced to organise a massive protest against police extortion of innocent citizens.
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