Does IGP authorize extortion?
By Okechukwu Uwaekweikpe
Sunday,
March 30, 2008
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•Okiro
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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In Nisirimo Community of Umuohia south, some members of certain
Kwashiokor church sometime in late 2007 felled a sacred tree.
The tree had stool for nearly a millennium. The felled tree
destroyed the NEPA transmission line.
The community reacted with fury and pulled down the mud hut
of the church. The church authorities wrote a petition to
the AIG zone 9 Umuohia accusing the community of multiple
crimes.
Naturally, the police moved in. Several leading members of
Nsirimo community were arrested and detained. The Nsirimo
development Association, Federated, moved in, wrote to both
the chairman of Umuohia south LGA and the AIG for zone 9,
begging for settlement.
The request was granted. However, the 28 people listed by
the church as the ringleaders were still invited by the AIG
zone 9, Umuohia to come and make statement.
The AIG said the petition by the church was forwarded to the
IGP (Mike Okiro) who endorsed it.
Ordinarily, there was nothing wrong with that. But what is
worrisome is that Nsirimo community takes the men in batches
of four to the AIG of zone 9 Umuohia, where they made statement.
Thereafter, each of them was bailed with a hefty sum by Nsirimo
Development Association.
The AIG zone 9 Umuohia said the bail was necessary because
the IGP had already signed on the church’s petition.
Now, the question is: does the IGP authorize extortion? Didn’t
they say bail is free? The bail is therefore nothing but extortion
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