HURIWA slams police for blackmail attempts against whistleblower in organ harvesting case

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), on Wednesday, slammed the Nigeria Police Force for alleged attempts to blackmail a whistle-blower, 26-year-old National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member, Nnamdi Daniel, in an organ harvesting case allegedly involving top police officers in the Anambra State Police Command.

HURIWA in a statement issued by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the massive transfer of all the police operatives from Anambra State to other states and the redeployment of other police operatives to Anambra State by the Police Service Commission is suspect.

The group, therefore, demanded that a separate judicial commission of investigators made up of independent forensic scientists, criminologists and others be constituted by the Anambra State Government to unravel the circumstances behind the organ harvesting allegations against the police.

Recall that in February, Daniel, a whistleblower through a blog, Gistlover, shared evidence accusing three members of the state police force of the atrocious activities.

Following the allegations, the force Headquarters set up a panel to investigate the matter after inviting the officers involved to Abuja and subsequently freeing them.

Earlier in April, after two months, Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Muyiwa Adejobi, said the panel investigating the allegations of killings, extortion and organ harvesting levelled against some senior officers of two police formations in Anambra has submitted its report.

However, Onwubiko said the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, must not sweep the alleged organ harvesting case involving the high-ranking members of the Anambra State Police Command under the carpet.

The group said there are reports that some police officers planned to gun down the whistle-blower instead of arraigning him in court because of the “volume of information” at his disposal which could implicate several police personnel.

Onwubiko said: “The attempts by the police authority to conceal facts relating to this allegation and the police subterranean attempts to blackmail the whistleblower so as to muddy up the entire damaging allegations are condemnable.”

“The police should make its findings public if it is not hiding anything. He stated that the police continually keeping its findings away is simply a gambit to hide the serious allegations under the carpets of impunity and try to do propaganda to clean up the mess of the police in all of these allegations.

“We demand that a separate judicial commission of investigators made up of independent forensic scientists, criminologists and judicial officers be constituted by the Anambra state government to unravel the circumstances behind these allegations of human organ harvesting against the police, the massive transfer of all the police operatives from Anambra state to other states and the redeployment of other police operatives to Anambra state by the Police Service Commission.

“The silence of the police service commission is very dangerous and must be revisited. Why is the PSC silent? Is PSC already pocketed by the office of the IGP given the rapprochement going on between PSC led by a former IGP and the IGP? Nigerians demand accountability.”