By Bose Olamide
Chairman of the Independent investigative panel on human rights violations by the defunct SARS and other units of the police, Justice Suleiman Galadima rtd has sought from the police the whereabouts of Mr. Morris Ashwe an alleged victim of enforced disappearance.
The Chairman of the 11-man panel demanded the whereabouts of the victim from DSP Haladu Mohammed whom the complainant, Mr. Rapheal Ashwe alleged was last seen with Morris.
Testifying before the panel in a case of alleged enforced disappearance, brought before it by Raphael Ashwe, who is brother of the victim, stated that Morris Ashwe was arrested by operatives of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Nigerian police command in Benue state over allegations of gun running and illegal possession of firearm.
The complainant alleged that DSP Haladu Mohammed was on the team of the officers that effected the arrest, saying the victim was paraded alongside others at the police command in Benue, for different offence.
Furthermore the complainant alleged that the commander IRT, DCP Abba Kyari was present on the day of parade and “since that day, I have not seen or heard from my brother Morris again, “we were subsequently told he was moved to IRT headquarters in Abuja” he said.
In their defense, counsel to the respondents Kenneth Ogbuchua asked Raphael if he knows DSP Haladu in person and how he came across the name. Raphael said he hasn’t met him in person but in the course of filing the petition his name was dropped by one Judith Nwese, Morris’s fiance who is now late.
According to DSP Haladu Mohammed, he knows nothing about the case, saying he was not in Benue when the said incident took place.
Haladu also told the panel as a matter of fact that he was at the Kano state command at the time the arrest, detention and inhuman treatment of the victim happened.
However the panel has ordered the police to produce the officers and men that took part in the alleged arrest and enforced disappearance of Morris, noting ”that the force is a system and cannot appear helpless”. The Panel members asked the police to go through its records with the pictures available and the case file to get to the root of the matter.
Meanwhile, the case has been adjourned till 23rd of March 2021.
