A businessman and miner in Imo State, Paul Okosisi, has asked the Police Service Commission (PSC) to caution the police area commander in Ogboko, Ideato North local government area, ACP Julius Ahaneku, over alleged harassment and threat to the lives of the residents of the area.
In the petition dated January 18, 2023 and signed by his lawyer, Olajumoke Adebayo, and made available to LEADERSHIP, Okosisi, further alleged that the police officer has constituted himself into a ‘terror’ in the community and has no regards for the rule of law.
According to him, he had applied and obtained grant from the federal government through the Office of the Director of Mining Cadastral in Abuja, to mine the sand at Agwura and Urashi river in Ideato North LGA but some indigenes backed by the area commander, invaded the mining site on December 6, 2022 and carted away his equipment.
He said 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 were turned down, while he was upheld as the authentic holder of the grant.
Okosisi in the petition said some 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 said 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 a 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 foot into the site again.”
