A group of legal practitioners in Cross River state have charged the Commissioner of Police in the state, Augustine Grimah, to urgently investigate the reported brutality meted out on a citizen, Ogo Ogar Ichire by the police in Ikom, central Cross River.
The lawyers, led by Barrister Sony Mgbe Ogar, said Ogo Ichire was “bound like a robber, gagged and then thrown into the boot of a car like luggage and taken to the police station and subjected to further torturous ordeal and detained in a cell with handcuff.”
Barr Ogar said the torture was linked to cocoa farm transaction which Mr Ichire leased out to one Mr Moses Uwaeme, and which the police did not properly investigate the propriety or otherwise of the claims presented to it before unleashing mayhem on Ichire, the owner of the cocoa farm.
In a petition to the Police Commissioner, made available to our reporter in Calabar, Barr Ogar, leading a team of lawyers, including Felicia Nzuanke, Michael Omom, amongst others, faulted the agreement papers upon which the police acted to arrest and torture their client. He described the lease agreement presented by the lessee as fake.
“Our client is the owner by customary inheritance of a large cocoa farm plot at Rotuk Farm Road, Okuni in Ikom local government area of Cross River state.
“The clear understanding, custom and usage in the lease agreement was that the Lessee, Mr. Moses Uwaeme, was to clear the farm of weeds and shrubs at least thrice yearly to make the farm roomy and airy in order to boost productivity.
“The Lessee was also to regularly spray the farm with such agro chemicals like gamalin 20, cocoa bre-sandoz, blue stone and allied chemicals but certainly not with carbite which is a burning and corrosive substance used by welders for iron works.
“However, to our client’s dismay and chagrin, the Lessee did not do any of the above but was merely contented with wading through bushes and shrubs to pick cocoa pods and left the farm overgrown with weeds, algae and other parasitic climbers.
“Our client did terminate the lease at its expiration in 2019 and retook possession and control of the farm. Our client had been in active possession of his farm until the 2nd of March, 2024, when the said Moses Uwaeme using the Ikom Division Police invaded our client’s house in the dead of the night and picked up our client half naked to the station,” Mgbe stated
Efforts to speak with the Public Relations Officer of the Cross River state Police Command, Irene Ugbo, on the matter did not yield any fruit as her telephone line could not connect as at press time.
