The Commissioner of Police in Anambra State, Aderemi Adeoye, has accused the founder of a security firm, Jeff Nweke, of using armed operatives from his firm to engage in land grabbing in the state.
Mr Adeoye, who stated this during a briefing on Thursday, said Mr Nweke is the founder of Blue Shield Security Company in the state.
The police commissioner said, within three months of his assumption of duty in Anambra State, he had received several petitions from various communities in the state, accusing Mr Nweke of using armed operatives from his security company for land grabbing.
Mr Adeoye said he referred all the petitions for investigation to the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Awka, the state capital, headed by a Deputy Commissioner of Police in the state, Akin Fakorede.
“Investigation into the cases indicted him (Nweke) for using his armed operatives to seize lands belonging to individuals and communities including Nibo and Enugwu Agidi which share boundaries with Awka where Jeff is from,” he said.
Mr Adeoye said a police officer from Delta State, who accompanied his superior in Delta State to visit a property in an area where Mr Nweke allegedly grabbed land, was shot by operatives from Blue Shield Security Company.
The operatives of the private security company allegedly stole the officer’s pistol, the commissioner said.
“When SCID operatives who were already investigating the land grab case which is made a crime by laws of Anambra State responded to the scene, Blue Shield guards opened fire on the Team.
“They (the guards) were however overwhelmed by the police team, disarmed, arrested and detained. They have been arraigned in court,” he said.
The commissioner said after he issued a 24-hour ultimatum to the security company to return the pistol or have the company closed down, a retired Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Celestine Okoye, said to be an associate of Mr Nweke, stepped into the matter.
“In the evening of that day, DIG Celestine Okoye called me to his house in Awka and handed over the stolen pistol to me. I handed it to the DC CID whom I called to accompany me as a witness since he was the one handling the investigation,” he said.
Mr Adeoye said, after he approved the charge in the land grabbing case against Mr Nweke based on a complaint by Nibo Community, he rushed to Abuja and tried to get the Force CID to take over the case.
“(But) the DIG Force CID rather than taking over the case called for the duplicate case file for a review in line with IGP’s policy on transfer of cases. At the end of the review, this Command was directed by the DIG Force CID to carry on with the investigation,” he said.
The police commissioner said Mr Nweke and operatives of his company have been charged in court in three different cases – one at the Federal High Court and two at the State High Court.
“Despite being served with arraignment notices he has refused to appear in court. We will be applying for a bench warrant for his arrest at the next sitting,” he said of Mr Nweke.
Mr Adeoye suggested that he decided to speak up in the light of Mr Nweke’s “current media campaign of blackmail against DCP Akin Fakorede and the State CID, Awka”.
He said Mr Nweke has been accusing the officers of “corruption ostensibly for not siding with his criminal escapades”.
Mr Nweke was said to have released a video clip recently wherein he alleged that one of the investigating police officers, identified simply as Inspector Monday, demanded N20 million bribe from him and later accepted a N100,000 offer.
The police commissioner denied the allegation, adding that what happened was “actually a set up against the unwary police officer.”
He narrated that, in the early days of investigation, Mr Nweke had feigned serious illness when invited for questioning.
This, he said, prompted the DC CID to direct Inspector Monday to go and record Mr Nweke’s statement in his office in order not to stall the investigation.
Mr Adeoye said, when Inspector Monday, accompanied by a female detective, arrived at the office, Mr Nweke declined to make any statement, but instead, promised to come to the CID the next day to make the statement.
“He (Nweke) handed a wad of notes to the detective which he said was to cover their transport costs. Inspector Monday even bowed to thank him in the video clip. That was not consistent with a person who demanded a N20 million bribe as claimed by the blackmailer.
“When the video failed to trend or win public sympathy to the crime suspect, he resorted to hiring people for sponsored protests against the Command targeting DCP Akin Fakorede, Inspector Monday and the CID,” he said.
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When reached for comments at about the issues, Mr Nweke said he would not be able to speak until after two to three hours.
“I am in somebody’s office. I am in Abuja. Just give me about two or three hours,” he said.
But three hours later, there were repeated attempts to call him back but his phone line did not connect.
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