WANTED Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor has asked the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), House of Representatives and government of the United States of America to prevail on the Nigerian government to set aside his declaration by the Nigeria Police as a “wanted person.”
In a number of letters sent out to different institutions by Ejiofor through his law firm, I.C Ejiorfor and Co, copies of which were made available to The ICIR, the IPOB lawyer asked the NHRC, the House of Representatives and the US government through the US Ambassador to Nigeria to intervene on his behalf and prevail on the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Nigerian Police to immediately set aside the Declaration made against him on December 3, 2019, “declaring me “a wanted person”, and to fully give effect to his fundamental human rights.”
The ICIR reported that Ejiofor has gone into hiding after police declared him wanted following alleged killing of two senior police officers by people believed to be IPOB members at his country home in Oraifite Ekwusigo Local Government Area of Anambra State.
In the letter, he also asked the government institutions and the US to prevail on the Federal Government of Nigeria to set up an independent investigative panel to investigate the incident that occurred at his ancestral home in Oraifite, Ekwusigo Local Government Area of Anambra State, December 2, 2019.
” I finally crave the indulgence of the National Assembly for a proactive oversight and intervention in the light of this obvious travesty of justice against me, in view of the extraordinary circumstances prevailing in the case,” he said.
Providing background on what transpired between him and the police, he accused the Oraifite Area Commander of extrajudicial killings and attempted assassination.
“The fulcrum of this communication is to alert the National Assembly on the obvious manipulation and visible subversion of the course of justice and orchestrated effort to exterminate my life by the security agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria when the police under Anambra State Police Command and other security agents brutally invaded and set ablaze my premises in Oraifite Ekwusigo Local Government Area of Anambra State, and consequently killed over six unarmed civilians on the 2nd December, 2019,” Ejiofor said.
According to him, the policemen and Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) operatives sent by the Area Commander to his house were told to shoot him on sight including everyone that hinders his assassination.
He wrote that the SARS operatives and soldiers sent by the Area Commander burnt down 22 houses in his home and neighbourhood including properties he valued at N700million.
Ejiofor stated that the reinforcement that included soldiers who were majorly made up of Fulani extraction was an avenue for the soldiers to loot and rape women they saw at the scene.
He alleged that the burnt bodies displayed by the Police Command as police officers burnt by IPOB members were in fact bodies of neighbourhood youths killed by the policemen.
The lawyer noted that he had a voice call recording of his conversation with the Area Command of Orifiate which he did not mention to him that he was being investigated for any crime.
He said the Area Commander told him in the conversation that he was in his house to arrest one of his wards who was involved in a local conflict in the community.
Ejiofor added that some of the youths in his compound who had come for his brother’s funeral had hidden two bodies behind his house after they had been killed by the police operatives.
It would be recalled that the Anambra State Police Command declared Ejiofor wanted over December 2 declared Ejiofor wanted following the death of two policemen after a clash with some IPOB members in his neighbourhood.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94