NNEWI — Lately, the anti-cult squad of the Nigeria Police Force Anambra State Command has been in the news over allegations of brutality, abduction and extortion. This is coming only a few weeks after the former Anambra SARS commander; CSP James Nwafor, came under intense public scrutiny on allegations of extrajudicial killings and his role as head of SARS at a time several young men were said to have been by rounded and killed by SARS.
Last week, the anti-cult squad of the Nigeria Police Force Anambra State Command reportedly arrested some young men in Nnewi around 2am in the morning, while they were sleeping in the comfort of their homes, alleging that they are cultists. They were taken to anti-cult office in Nnewi, beaten, tortured, money extorted from them after which the team was convinced they are not cultists and they were released.
Uchenna Onwuegbuna of Nkpoka Okpuno, Nnewichi, Nnewi was arrested around 2am while he was sleeping in his room in his father’s compound. Narrating the ordeal, Uchenna’s brother Itesiwaju explained that the squad took every one of them by surprise. “Our gate is not very good, so we just close it, without locking it. So they just smoothly entered the compound, some also came from the back entrance. Because of the hot weather, my brother’s door was open so they just entered and woke him up, then asked him to follow them. While he was confused and trying to know what was going on, he woke his wife who was asleep, but they said, Madam go back to sleep, don’t follow us. I was in my room sleeping. I didn’t know what was going on. It was the wife that now raised alarm when she started asking them who they were and where they came from. They now said they are anti-cult from Uli”.
Earlier during the weekend, Itesiwaju had announced the abduction of his brother by an anti-cult squad of the Nigeria Police Force on different Whatsapp forums, seeking assistance with ensuring that his brother is released. Unfortunately, his brother slept in the anti-cult squad cell from Friday morning through Monday morning before they were able to raise N20, 000 (Twenty thousand Naira) which they paid for his release and he was released. “My brother has been arrested before by the Nnewi anti-cult squad, but they later found out he is not a cultist so they issued him with a certificate which was showed to these people that came to arrest him by 2am on Friday, last week. We feared for his life. The torture there is terrible so we gathered money by all means possible and gave them N20, 000 for his release and he was released”. The victim, Uchenna Onwuegbunam when contacted was so traumatized and demoralized that for several minutes the only words he could say were “I can’t just talk”.
Then on Sunday, July 19, three brothers; Chinecherem Onyekaonwu, Nzube Onyekaonwu and Chibuzo Onyekaonwu of Okpuno, Nnewichi, Nnewi, were arrested by the anti-cult squad around 2am, while sleeping in the comfort of their father’s house. Also, 14 years old Kamsiyo Ebele Emmanuel whose father’s house is also close by, was arrested the same day, at the same time while sleeping at home. Izuchukwu Nkwogbo a youth leader in Nnewi, who intervened at the anti-cult Nnewi office at Central Police Station Nnewi, was amazed at the level of torture his cousins were subjected to. He narrated that they were hung up, tied with a rod across their backs and forced to confess that they were cultists, but the three brothers refused to bow to the torture. However, the young Kamsiyo who could not bear the excruciating pain of the torture confessed that he was a cultist, so they detained him separately. It was Izuchukwu who alerted Hon. Chris Azubogu representing Nnewi North/South and Ekwusigo Federal Constituency of the abduction of his cousins. When Izuchukwu attempted to capture his cousins with his phone’s camera, he was caught, detained and his phone confiscated by the officers. However, Izuchuwku had already informed Hon. Nonso Okafor representing Nnewi North in Anambra State House of Assembly of the unfortunate event and his intervention on that Sunday ensured their release that same day, at no cost.
Mr. Chibuzo Onyekaonwu abducted along two of his younger brother is a businessman who sells electrical parts in Nnewi and also does DJ as a side hustle. Recounting he narrates that they were all comfortably sleeping but in the dead of the night, around 2am, their father upon noticing that some people have gained entrance into his compound owing to their dogs’ reactions, came out and saw some men armed with guns and iron in police uniform. His interaction asking what they were looking for woke the entire family up. Something he described as extremely chaotic and confusing.
“They came into our compound through the fence. They scaled the fence and gained entrance into the compound. Then, they went to the gate and cut off the gate’s key and took it, so the gate was then open. When the dogs alerted that some people have gained entrance into the compound, my father went out and was asking them who they were and they said they are looking for somebody, then my junior brother Nzube came out and was asking what was going on, the officers said they were looking for someone. My father asked to know who the person is, they said its Nzube and Chibuzo; that is my younger brother and myself. My father asked what we did that they are looking for us by that time of the night. They said they are anti-cult and that the two of us were reported by someone to be cultists. My father was still confused asking questions for clarification then they started beating my brother and forcefully gained access into our rooms. They entered my sick kid brother Chinecherem’s room; he was sleeping but was handcuffed on the bed after he was beaten for nothing. They were eight of them”, Chibuzo recalled.
Chibuzo further recollects that when they got to his own apartment where he lives with his family, they nearly pulled the iron door down before he could open it. “When I opened my door, they pushed me forcefully into my room and started searching the room, they found nothing. Yet, they beat all my brothers and myself forcing us to be handcuffed. It was like a sudden war. My sister was so traumatized that she ran into one of the rooms and locked herself. They handcuffed all of us. My wife was asking what was going on but one of them slapped her three times and pushed her. They said the person who said we are cultists is outside and that we will see them when we get to their car parked outside. When we got outside, we saw no one. We saw some people in their car, they do not know us and we do not know them. They said we should get to their office. When we got there, they pushed us into their cell and those in the cell started maligning us. So around 4 am, they woke us up and started torturing us. The torture lasted for about thirty minutes. It was hell. They did everything possible to force us to agree that we are cultists, we refused to agree. We were hanged with our legs tied to our back and with rod across our backs. My brother Nzube fainted in this intense torture and they brought him down and started pouring water on him. When he regained consciousness, they resumed the torture again. I refused to confess to being a cultist, I am not a cultist, I instead asked them to kill me and they cocked their gun to my ears. Finally, they said that since we were not cultists that it is not their fault but that it was someone who said we were cultists. They then said we should pay for the damage on their gun. They were using the head of the gun to hit my brother’s head and that was why their gun had damaged, while my brother’s head swelled up. We came back that Sunday after Hon. Nonso Okafor’s intervention”, Chibuzo said.
When contacted by message, SP Haruna Mohammed the Anambra State Police Public Relations Officer-PPRO, described the alleged terror by the anti-cult squad on innocent people as “hearsay”. But when contacted on the phone, the Anambra State PPRO explained further. According to him, “There is nothing wrong in arresting people who are suspected to be members of secret cult at night. Is there any law that prohibits that”? When asked why people can be arrested at that time of the night without arrest warrant and without evidence that they are cultists, the PPRO said that police cannot arrest somebody without information. “We have access to information. We receive the information. We have access to information more than you people. Police cannot just go and arrest somebody without information. Why didn’t they enter your house? Why did they not enter other people’s house, why the selected people’s house? It is based on information. Everything is being done in the public interest.
“Most of these suspected secret cult members cannot get them in the afternoon. It is in the night you get them, unless you don’t want police to do their work. So police are doing their investigation. If somebody feels that police has arrested him wrongly, it is to write a formal complaint to the Commissioner of Police, then the Commissioner of Police will order for investigation, but you cannot caution police action in terms of arresting suspected secret cult members. But if anyone arrested clears his innocence, let him write officially to the Commissioner of Police, there will be an investigation and if the officers are found wanting, they will be dealt with in accordance with the police regulations. But police cannot fold their hands and watch secret cult members constituting nuisance in the society, causing a lot of difficulties to members of the public”, he said. But when asked about the claims of extortion, Mr. Haruna responded; “well, if they have evidence they should come forward with it, we will investigate. It is one thing to have allegation, it is another thing to prove it. Anybody who felt police has extorted money from him, let him come forward, we will investigate”, the PPRO concluded.
Today July 23, the anti-cult squad has reportedly abducted a young man around just before 3am in his father’s house, in Umudim, Nnewi.
Meanwhile, it is now suspected by some community leaders around the village where people are being picked up in the middle of the night in Nnewi, that some members of the community may be sabotaging their youths by reporting them to the police anti-cult squad as cult members and leading the anti-cult squad to their homes in the dead of the night.
He is a Technical Assistant to Governor Willie Obiano’s Special Adviser on Legislative Matters, whoonce was a Special Adviser to a former Deputy Speaker of Anambra State House of Assembly. Ebuka is a second class upper division graduate of Political Science from University of Calabar, Calabar Nigeria and holds a Masters Degree in Political Science with specialization in Government and Development Studies, from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka Nigeria
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