Nnubia’s messy trial

The order, on Tuesday March 17, by an Enugu high court on the state police commissioner, Mohammed Zarewa, to produce three suspects being held in police custody over the kidnap, December last year, of Dr. Francis Edemobi, younger brother to Dora Akunyili, minister for information, calls to question the role of the police in the entire Chief Ignatius Nnubia kidnap saga.

Nnubia, an oil mogul, was, since last year, taken in by the police following his incrimination as the sponsor of Edemobi’s kidnap. Nnubia has, since then, been undergoing prosecution for the crime amidst fan-fare by the police, and, of course, his detractors.

But the prevarication of the same police in producing Nnubia’s co-accused, including two mobile policemen, Sgt Osakaike Dennis and ThankGod Dakashi, as well as a Mohammed Ali, leaves more questions than answers in the whole matter. While the duo of Dennis and Dakashi were police officers attached to Nnubia, Ali was said to be his guard.

I.S. Amanoh, the presiding judge, couldn’t any longer hide her anger, as she ordered that the suspects be brought to court without further delay in the next adjourned date. Amanoh could not comprehend why the police, without any official reason, failed, for the umpteenth time, to produce the accused in court despite her court’s directives to that effect. The judge’s anger is predicated on the fact that absence of the co-accused of Nnubia is delaying commencement of the trial.

Police authorities explained that the suspects are undergoing orderly room trial. But, for how long will this trial last?

What is currently happening in Nnubia’s trial tends to confirm rumors making the rounds that the investigating police officers, led by Jude Abanajelo, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), got compromised in the course of investigating this crime, as a result of which Enugu state police command, perhaps aided by the Force Headquarters, is now trying hard to do some cover-ups to save its image.

It has to be noted that two other suspects, Joshua Ayuba and Chinedu Uhallah (army officers), were arrested amidst these prevarications of the police in arraigning the three earlier suspects. And, only God knows whether the police would not cling to similar untenable alibis in their own arraignment. This is, especially, against the backdrop of feelers that the police was incriminated by the statements of Ayuba and Uhallah (alias Onye Ami).

KlinReports contends that the role Professor Dora Akunyili, Nigeria’s information minister, played in the course of ensuring the release of her brother from hostage is suspect. Dora Akunyili’s role had, before now, been unreported. Akunyili, it was learnt, secretly went into negotiation with the kidnappers, through two persons among whom was an Enugu based hotelier.

Incredibly, Dora coughed up N4, 640,000.00 to the hoodlums through these two professional hostage negotiators. But shortly after Dora made the payment, the state police command, then led by Sanni Magaji, the state’s police commissioner, smashed the kidnap syndicate.

But do you know what happened? Dora Akunyili turned round to ask the two negotiators to refund her N4.6 million ransom since, in her contention, it was through police operations that her brother was released, not through them (the negotiators).
With DSP Abanajelo’s assistance, Akunyili did retrieve part of the ransom, N3 million, from the abductors. The two negotiators claimed they used up the remaining sum for logistics in the course of the rescue assignment.

One wonders why Dora Akunyili, Nigeria’s information minister, would have indulged in ransom paying. KlinReports believes that this issue should come up in the course of this kidnap trial. (KlinReports intends to give Prof. Akunyili’s N4.6 million ransom a more detailed treatment later)

Another issue: How come the police have not deemed it necessary to look in the direction of the two negotiators used by Akunyili and DSP Abanajelo to attempt to secure Edemobi’s release? One of them (the negotiators) owns a popular hotel in the New Haven area of Enugu metropolis, and police authorities are conversant with their deal with Akunyili. Do the police not think that these negotiators need to be probed further, with a view to finding out all that they knew, and still know, about kidnaps and negotiations in Enugu and beyond?

Unfortunately, Chief Nnubia lost the battle for his bail on Thursday March 19, because Justice Amanoh ruled that the alleged crime is weighty.

If this is so, the present attitude of the police indicates that it (the police) has something it does not want the general public to be exposed to in this trial. Otherwise, why would Nigeria Police, midway, transfer out DSP Abanajelo, the Investigating Police Officer (IPO), out of Enugu state. What do the police want to cover up in Nnubia kidnap saga? Like every other thing in life, time will tell.

The government of Sullivan Chime in Enugu state has shown clear commitments in stamping out kidnap and other violent crimes from the state. But it is not certain if Governor Chime knows all these behind the scene activities of the police and Akunyili in Edemobi’s kidnap?

KlinReports enjoins Governor Chime to use the apparati of his government to take a holistic view of the on-going trial of kidnap suspects going on in Enugu, so as not to allow otherwise innocent people to suffer unduly for crimes they never committed.