Delta Community Alleges Police Conspiracy To Assassinate Citizen Over Land Dispute

By Braxton Ilobah

The Ogbe-Ozoma people of Okpanam community in Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State, have alleged that officers of the Rapid Response Squad, (RRS) of the Delta State Police Command, had attempted to assassinate one Mr. Chinedu Ofuani, an indigene of Ogbe-Ozoma Village in Okpanam, in a ploy to cover up their track and rope him with the murder of two policemen in a disputed land in Okpanam.

They said Ofuani who was brutally attacked in what seemed like a case of kidnap, narrowly escaped death, but he was shot in the leg before intervention came from the Police Force Headquarters in Abuja to have him released unconditionally.

In a press statement signed by some elders of the community, including Chief Felix Okafor (Ikejiani of Okpanam), Chinedu Ofuani, Barnabas Nwanze and Agiliga Nwanze, the Ogbe-Ozoma Village of Okpanam community accused the police of working in cohort with one Mr. Chinedu Aniekwe a.k.a Ekwe-Ogidi, an alleged land racketeer funding violence alongside the people of Akpoma community in Issele-Azagba of Aniocha North Local Government Area, to dispossess the Ogbe-Ozoma people of their land inheritance from their forefathers.

In their statement, the former Commissioner of Police, CP Ari Mohammed Ali, now AIG Zone 2, Lagos, and former DCP Operations, Mr. Johnson Ademola, now CP PSO to IGP, Abuja, were alleged as the ones aiding and abetting unprofessional conducts and corrupt activities of the Police in the matter, having been mentioned to have been compromised with over #40 million by the said Chinedu Aniekwe a.k.a Ekwe-Ogidi, a hotelier in Asaba.

The Ogbe-Ozoma people alleged that the former CP and former DCP were highly corrupt, claiming that about one year that the policemen were killed, there had been no concluded investigation on how they died, and there had been no autopsy result.

The people of Ogbe-Ozoma have also called on unsuspecting members of the public to desist from engaging in any land deal relating to the disputed area of land between the Ogbe-Ozoma people of Okpanam and Akpoma people of Issele-Azagba with such unscrupulous elements involved in the land racket.

Still on the matter, the people of Ogbe-Ozoma are equally alleging that their traditional leader, Obi Victor Adi Nwaokobia died on the 1st of January, 2024, as a result of the torture he received from the police on his arrest and detention for over a month, thereby calling on the Inspector General of Police to come clean, investigate and prosecute those involved in sniffing life out of innocent people in the matter.

They stated that when Obi Adi Nwaokobia was arrested, the police had quickly charged him to court the next day on 16-count charges, and he was remanded in Ogwashi-Uku prison for over a month.

The statement further added that it took the advice of the DPP based on petitions from Ogbe-Ozoma lawyers, to have the 82 years old Obi Adi Nwaokobia released, but that he later suffered stroke from the inhuman tortures meted out on him.

It was also gathered that, having failed in all attempts to intimidate and subdue the Ogbe-Ozoma people to pressure to relinquish the disputed land to Chinedu Aniekwe, the police had therefore, turned itself to an arbiter, mounting pressures on the Ogbe-Ozoma people to leave the land for their alleged client, Mr. Chinedu Aniekwe.

While calling on the IGP to critically investigate these matters, they feared that now that the former DCP Ademola is now the CP PSO to the IGP, he might want to still compromise the process of investigation if not properly checked.

However, efforts to get the former Delta State Commissioner of Police, CP Ari Mohammed Ali, former DCP Operations, Mr. Johnson Ademola, and Mr. Chinedu Aniekwe to respond to these weighty allegations had proved abortive.

Meanwhile, the PPRO of Delta State Police Command, DSP Edafe Bright had confirmed knowledge of the matter, stating that it has been an ongoing case.

According to him, “The case of who owns the land is not the business of the Police; however, the business of the police in the matter is the murder of the police officers and carting away of their rifles.

“Honestly, I can’t tell the unit that is investigating the matter presently, but I know that at a time, the whole parties in the case were drafted to Abuja for further interrogations”, the PPRO explained.