Police Extortion and Ending Witch Hunts in Ebonyi State -By Leo Igwe

Efforts to end witchcraft accusations and persecution will amount to nothing and yield no significant results if police officers do not change their ways and stop obtaining money from accused persons through force and threat in Ebonyi state. Ebonyi is a hotbed of abuses linked to witchcraft beliefs. Accusations are rampant. Jungle justice and trial by ordeal are perpetrated with impunity. Accused persons cannot access justice. The situation is dire and dangerous. The Advocacy for Alleged Witches(AfAW) is working and campaigning to address these violations, combat impunity, and ensure consequences for abusers and perpetrators.

But the police are frustrating the efforts to end witch hunting in the state. Police officers are hell-bent on extracting funds from the victims. Every step to get the police to intervene, to act, and help enforce laws against witch hunts is marked by extortion of money from the accused. This despicable state of policing can be illustrated by two ongoing cases in the state: the cases of Mr E and Mr T. The two people are from the Ohaukwu area of the state. In the case of E, his accusers attacked him and burnt down his house. They beat him into a coma and dumped him on the roadside. Mr E later regained consciousness, and some good-hearted individual took him in, helped him, and nursed his wounds. Someone brought his case to the attention of the Advocacy for Alleged Witches, and AfAW encouraged Mr E to petition the police, and he did.

But the IPO and his colleagues have been extorting money from him to date. At every point, the IPO demands a huge sum of money, and Mr E pleads and begs for a slightly reduced sum. The officer always threatens to abandon the case if the accused person does not pay up. In the case of Mr E, the IPO has extorted about two million naira. To arrest the suspects, the IPO complained that the place was in a remote area, and he would go with a crack squad and a police vehicle. He forced Mr E to cough up 350 thousand naira. Incidentally, the police team came back without making any arrests. They said it rained, and the road to the community was impassable. The team returned to Abakiliki. The IPO said they would not go for another arrest unless the accused fueled their vehicle. He was compelled to pay fifty thousand naira to fuel the vehicle. This time, they arrested two suspects, and others fled into the bush.

In the statements, those arrested implicated other perpetrators and the police officer in charge of investigating crimes insisted that they be apprehended. The IPO asked Mr E to remobilize them. He demanded another three hundred thousand naira and threatened to release those arrested if the accused did not mobilize them. Mr E pleaded and eventually gave the IPO two hundred and fifty thousand naira. They went but did not arrest anyone. It was alleged that a member of the police team, from the village, had pre-informed community members of their visit, and all the suspects fled. The village was deserted by the time the police arrived. The police team returned to Abakiliki without any of the suspects. The mobilization fee that the police extracted from Mr E was not refunded. The IPO extorted twenty thousand for statements, another twenty thousand for photocopies, and thirty thousand naira for the compilation of case files.

To arraign the suspects, the IPO forced the accused to pay sixty thousand naira. Mr E paid twenty thousand to the crack police team that conveyed the suspects to the court, and five thousand naira for the IPO’s feeding. This excludes the money twenty thousand naira that Mr E paid to the police lawyer. At every stage, the IPO was threatening to abandon the matter or release the suspects if the accused refused to pay. Following the arraignment and remand of suspects, relatives of the defendants attacked the family members of Mr E in the village. The case was reported to the same IPO.

Here is a part of the report that an advocate helping Mr E process the petition sent AfAW: “We’re already at the State Police Command with Mr E’s younger brother, who was attacked. The IPO requested that he come for his statement. Earlier this morning, the IPO called me and reiterated his request for money, asking me how much I’ve been able to realize. I told him that I was coming to see him. Now with him, the IPO firstly expressed his displeasure that you called him so early this morning, and has been sending him messages to which he has declined to respond. He asked me again how much I’ve been able to raise. I told him that I can give him N30, 000k for him to continue on the arraignment process. He flared up at me, and in reaction, I flared up too. I asked him that case registration in High courts cannot cost him more than N2000, not as if I don’t know what’s happening. The 20 pictures of the scene of the incident he has to print today and attach to the case files, cannot cost more than N20, 000. Then he explained that he has to produce the file into four places. He further threatened that if I don’t comply, he was going to bring out the suspect from the cell and give him a phone to call his people for his bail”.

In a related report, the advocate stated: “The IPO has recorded the statement of Mr E’s brother and yet requested that his sister and any member of the village vigilante be brought tomorrow as a witness to the latest attack on E’s brother. This, he explained, will establish that E and his siblings are still being hunted by their stepbrothers and others. My shock today was that the IPO still collected the sum of six thousand naira from E’s brother, leaving them without any transportation fare back home. However, I provided them with some transportation fare, including fare for the two persons who will be coming to make statements tomorrow”.
These exchanges typify the way that the IPO has handled the matter since it was reported. In a related development, relatives of the suspects on remand attacked another accused person, Mr T. The matter was reported to the police, to the same IPO, who initiated another round of extortion, threats, and intimidation of the accused and the relatives. The son of Mr T drew the attention of AfAW to huge sums that the police had extracted from them. He told AfAW that the IPO had collected over seven hundred thousand naira from them.

Meanwhile, the suspects are yet to be arraigned. Mr T. called to inform AfAW that he was financially drained and exhausted; that he was contemplating taking his own life because he could no longer bear the extortion. He could no longer afford the money to pay the police. He stated that he had been forced to sell his property or use others to take loans. I have called and messaged the IPO asking him to desist from obtaining money from the accused persons through force and threats without success. All appeals to this officer to exercise compassion and professionalism fell on deaf ears. Unfortunately, the IPO has remained adamant. He wants to squeeze the last kobo from the accused and their relatives. Empathic policing is lacking in Ebonyi and in other parts of the country.

The Advocacy for Alleged Witches calls on the Inspector General of Police and the Commissioner of Police in Ebonyi to call this IPO and other police officers in the state to order. Extortion undermines law enforcement and adds salt to the injuries of the accused. Alleged witches are poor and vulnerable individuals. Extortion turns police officers into exploiters of those they should protect and defend.

Police in Ebonyi should end the extortion of money from alleged witches with immediate effect.

Leo Igwe directs Advocacy for Alleged Witches.