The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has charged the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Akali Baba, to make public the findings of the panel that investigated the invasion of a church in Imo State by hooded policemen.
It demanded that the Police, Nigerian Army and the Department of State Services (DSS) should unveil the identity of those indicted in the attack on a sacred place of worship.
The group vowed to resist attempts to undermine the matter, as it had become the norm since the inception of the current administration.
Armed policemen attached to the Imo State Government House, had invaded the St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Eziama-Obaire in Nkwerre Council of the state and abducted Uche Nwosu, after dispersing the worshipers with sporadic gunshots.
The group charged the police authority to urgently unveil the identity of the operatives that invaded the church, as it did in the invasion of Supreme Court Justice, Mary Odili’s home in Abuja.
“The offence of the invaders of the Anglican Church in Imo State is weightier, because unlike the Mary Odili’s home invasion, the police operatives that invaded the church in Imo State shot sporadically into the crowd of worshippers,” it stated.
HURIWA revealed that the IGP had concluded investigation of the incident and had submitted the report to President Muhammadu Buhari and, therefore, demanded that it should be made public and the culprits prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to others.
Briefing journalists in Abuja, HURIWA National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said: “We have to send a message to the relevant authorities in the Nigeria Army, the DSS and the Nigeria Police Force that confirmed the invasion of the church during service to arrest Uche Nwosu, son-in-law to former governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha.”
“We demand that the Federal Government and the relevant authorities produce the armed operatives, who brazenly invaded the altar shooting sporadically and dispersing worshippers in the church, some of who, apart from the psychological and emotional traumatic experiences could have been shot and killed.”
