From Fred Itua, Abuja
The Commissioner for Land and Urban Development in Enugu State, Mr Chukwuemeka Nnam, has petitioned the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, over alleged gross illegality and use of Special Fraud Unit (SFU) by Private Estate International to witch-hunt him.
In a letter addressed to the IGP and signed by Nnam’s lawyer, Obinna Ugwu, he called on the IGP to review the investigation conducted by SFU of the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), Lagos, which gave rise to the charge the commissioner is currently facing in a Federal High Court.
Part of the letter reads:
‘It is also pertinent at this stage to state that our client was never at any time invited by the police over any complaint against him as all that the police did was to visit our client in his office and sought our client’s statement in respect of a certain case of forgery in the registration of Aruga Layout which the Milverton Police, Lagos was investigating and which statement our client freely volunteered to the police.
‘It is, therefore, surprising that the entire case was turned against our client whose only involvement was the registration of the said layout following his briefing by the representatives of the village involved.
‘Recently, and while this charge was still pending in the court, our client authoritatively learnt that the witnesses listed in the said charge who are indigenes of Obunagu village of Obeagu community through an affidavit completely dissociated themselves from the said charge and in that regard, wrote a letter to our client’s former office stating their resolution to continue working with our client’s office for the perfection of the registration of their Aruga layout while also appointing one Mr Sunday Ngene to be their representative in relating with our client’s office. “In view of the above, particularly the stance of the witnesses intended to be used by the prosecution in the said charge against our client vis-à-vis your position towards changing the face of the entire Nigeria Police Force for good, we do on behalf of our client humbly appeal for your intervention by causing the investigation as allegedly conducted by SFU in the above matter to be reviewed by another section of the police so as to unravel the people behind this embarrassing situation and save the institution of the Nigeria Police Force from a further embarrassment in the face of the general public.’
In another development, four witnesses listed in the ongoing trial of Nnam, have disassociated themselves from the case. They are Chigbogu Eze, Oguejiofor Egbo, Sunday Ngene and Christian Okoh.
In their separate depositions at the Federal High Court, Enugu, the four witnesses said they were withdrawing because of the poor investigation carried out, leading to the ongoing prosecution of the commissioner.
They further added that they can only be part of the case if a thorough investigation is conducted by the police.