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In a petition sighted by SaharaReporters on Saturday, it was revealed that apart from MTN, and the Nigerian Army, the police authorities in the state also appeared to have gone silent on the matter in a grand plot to pervert justice.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The Nigeria Police Force, Zone 5 headquarters, Benin, and the Edo State command, have for five months kept silent on a case involving multinational telecommunications company, MTN, in Benin City over alleged forged call logs and suspected murder to favour some Nigerian Army personnel.
SaharaReporters learnt on Saturday that the police authorities in the Zone planned to sweep the case under the carpet going by its alliance with MTN and the army, except there is intervention from the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba.
SaharaReporters had in June reported that some MTN officials failed to honour police invitations to explain over 65 errors/discrepancies in the call logs that the company released to the police, probing the abduction of one Sylvester Ekpemokan, whose illegal detention by the army resulted in his death.
It had been reported that operatives of the Edo State Police Command, Zone 5, earlier arrested the MTN manager in Benin City over the forged call logs.
A Nigerian man had previously complained about how some officers of the Nigerian Army had allegedly detained his driver, Ekpemokan, since August 2021 over a claim that he hit a military man’s car.
Ekpemokan had gone to work on August 10, 2021, precisely and did not return, after the military men abducted and kept him in their guardroom in Benin City, Edo State.
They had tortured him to death in their guardroom.
In a petition sighted by SaharaReporters on Saturday, it was revealed that apart from MTN, and the Nigerian Army, the police authorities in the state also appeared to have gone silent on the matter in a grand plot to pervert justice.
“lnstead of the police to carry out a thorough and meticulous investigation on the matter, they are now trying to use the case to enrich themselves by trying to help MTN to sweep the case under the carpet despite the fact that an innocent Nigerian is involved and the same police force used forged call logs from MTN to release the suspects that abducted the driver and closed the case.
“The police had earlier arrested MTN Manager who pleaded with the police that the MTN staff who forged the call logs is in the Call Data Records Department of MTN Headquarters, Lagos and will be brought to the police station.
“Few days later, the staff from MTN was handed over to onE Supol, Kingdom Wowo, who is the Officer in Charge of Anti-Fraud Unit. In the course of interview with the suspect, the police drove the petitioner (Pastor Unity Osas) out of their office and held a three-hour closed door meeting with the suspect and other staff of MTN,” the petition said.
“Osas stood in the rain for three hours; when the police finished their meeting with the MTN staff, the suspect went to buy malt and biscuits for the police officers who ate and drank with the suspect to ridicule the Complainant,” it was also revealed.
“The suspect and petitioner were later taken to the office of the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Mr. Isah; the petitioner told the AC CID how the police had been dinning and wining with the suspect while he waited in the rain. The AC CID told them to come the following day.
“On getting to the police station, the following day, the police told the petitioner that the MTN staff who was in police custody had escaped without writing any statement and nobody took him on bail.
“The AC CID later pleaded with them not to raise the alarm and he quickly gave the file to one Supol Agase, the Officer in Charge of Anti-Vice Unit. It becomes very obvious that the said Supol Agase and the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Mr Isah) have been working assiduously with MTN Headquarters to pervert justice.
“For good five months, there has been no single interview with the authorities. The petitioner has written three petitions to the Assistant Inspector-General of Police about the disgraceful and shameful act of these police officers and demanded the transfer of the case but it is sardonic that no action has been taken so far to address the perversion of justice by the police whose conscience have been corrupted by the delicious meal on the table of the multinational company.
“The shocking news is that the MTN has allocated the missing driver’s phone number to another subscriber just to cover their heinous crime against humanity and sin against God.
“The petitioner (Pastor Unity Osas) is graciously appealing to the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Baba Alkali Usman to intervene in this matter because the disgraceful acts of the Nigeria Police Force in perverting justice for the rich against the poor are capable of causing break down of law and order in the state. It was the same Nigeria police force that used forged call logs to release suspects and closed a murder case. The same Nigeria police is still trying to help MTN to cover the forgery case.
“The Petitioner also appeals to the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Minister of Communications, Human Right Organisations and fellow Nigerians to come to his aid as MTN is trying to use their wealth to cover this case,” an account obtained by SaharaReporters read.
