Nigeria Police Force: W/CPL Ohaeri verbally ‘dismissed’from service by an officer for refusing to register illegal firearms

By Kingsley Enemuoh

Can a Police Officer who has put in more than 10 years in service be dismissed verbally without due process? Without Orderly Room trial? These are posers which the office of the Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Usman Alkali Baba should find out and ensure that justice is      done.

W/CPL  Grace Ohaeri, an Imo State indigene, Force No. 03590 serving in Enugu Command, was relieved of her duties in curious circumstances and her name removed from the payroll of the Force since 1998 on the orders of one Deputy Inspector of Police Reuben Nwaogu, then Officer in charge of Narcotics attached to the Enugu State Criminal Investigation Department. An orderly room trial which he ordered to try Ohaeri on an alleged offence of insurbodination, could not take place as the officer incharge, then Assistant Superintendent of Police, Akas Halima, found out that she committed no offence and asked her to go back to her duty post.

But, DSP Nwaogu could not hear of it and ordered Ohaeri to be cutting grasses and cleaning the gutters at the Central Police Station, Enugu, a punishment which according to Ohaeri, she carries out till date without salaries and no official correspondence to her showing that she has been dismissed from the service of Enugu State Command.

More than 24 years down the line, all efforts by W/CPL Grace Ohaeri who was enlisted in the Police Force in September, 1983 to bring her plight to the knowledge of the Office of the Inspector General of Police, have not yielded any dividend.

 Drumnewsonline is in possession of a letter to the Inspector General of Police titled: RE: A PASSIONATE APPEAL FOR RE-INSTATEMENT AND RETIREMENT FROM THE FORCE which was sent through the office of the Commissioner of Police and received and stamped on 8th January, 2021, Ohaeri narrated that her last duty post was as the officer incharge of the ‘Renewal of Firearms Double Barrel short gun license(DBSG) duly approved by the Commissioner of Police’.

That sometime in 1998, the former Head of State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Abdulsalami Abubakar issued a Decree that all the Pump Action rifles belonging to members of the public be retrieved by the Police with immediate effect and sent to the Police Armoury for purpose of controlling crime waves in the country. That her path and that of DSP Nwaogu crossed because she refused ‘to register one illegally procured firearms brought by DSP Nwaogu who was the officer in charge of Narcotics’.

“The pump Action belongs to his relation from Isiala-Ngwa in Abia State. They failed to go and register it at Aba-Ngwa in Abia State Police Command because they saw that it is now prohibited by the Federal Government and they were hiding it from the police before it was later confiscated by me and was conveyed to State police Armoury for custody-ship. Based on this flimsy charge, I was maliciously ousted from office where I was the officer in-charge of renewal of firearms”.

When she was brought before the woman ASP Akas Halima as the Adjudicating Officer for an Orderly Room trial and be recommended for dismissal, she did not take any plea of either ‘Guilty or not Guilty’ but was informally asked by the Adjudicating Officer to explain what led to the charge preferred against her by DSP Nwaogu. ‘After the explanation, the Adjudicating Officer W/ASP Akas Halima requested me to go back to my office and continue with my honest service’, she stated in her letter of appeal. She was never convicted and no letter was sent to her by the Adjudicating Officer.

After working for some weeks, DSP Nwaogu came to CPS where she was attached ‘and verbally informed me that I have been dismissed from the Force and that I should leave my office immediately”. Not yet done, ‘after a little while he said to me again that I should go and start cutting all the grasses inside CPS Barracks field as punishment and be clearing all the surrounding gutters and culverts for Police Football Association competition team till further notice”.

Ohaeri, who is now in her early 70s wondered why then DSP Nwaogu was ‘bent on punishing her unjustly upon the fact that she was not charged with any offence and no entry whatsoever was made against her neither before nor thereafter’. She continued: “I did not commit any offence liable for punishment. I was polite enough to have told DSP Reuben k. Nwaogu that I cannot afford to take laws into my hands with the renewal of any prohibited firearms license.

“Since for long, nobody could speak on my behalf until now that I have decided to reach out to you with a copy of my appeal through my present CP. I must not continue to wait and die in silence, hence this. My case is most pitiable and very pathetic. Do please bear with me for God’s sake”, Ohaeri appealed to the IG.

Her appeal was forwarded to the IG through a letter dated 4/3/2021 signed by one ACP Hakeem Fijabi, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (DFA). Before then the office of the DIG, Department of Finance and Administration had through a letter CH:7370:DFA/FHQ/ABJ  addressed to Ohaeri dated 1st November, 2018 and signed by DCP Adewale H. Ayodele had directed Ohaeri ‘to process her appeal through her last Command’. Also, another letter dated September 18, 1998, signed by Ballah-Magaji Nasarawa(CSP), Principal Staff Officer to the IG addressed to the AIG, Zonal Command Headquarters, Zone 4, Makurdi, the then IG had directed the AIG to ‘find a copy of a letter dated 3rd February, 1998 from an ex-member of the Force’ stating that ‘the Inspector General of Police directs that you process accordingly, please”.

In 2018, when Enugu State Command was carved out to be with Zone 9, Umuahia, the office of the AIG, Zone 9 Umuahia wrote a letter titled: Re: FORWARDING OF APPLICATION FOR REINSTATEMENT AND RETIREMENT FROM THE FORCE EX-F/NO.03590 W/CPL GRACE OHAERI  dated 20th December, 2018 and signed by one DCP Maurice A. Yusuf. The letter referred to a letter from the Enugu Command No.AH:6790/ENS/VOL.2T/67 dated 4th December, 2018. The AIG Zone 9 Umuahia ‘directs that you bring up Orderly Room proceeding and CP’s comment”.

When the Zonal Command did not get any response, it did another letter: Re: FORWARDING OF COMMENT IN LIEU OF ORDERLY ROOM PROCEEDING. EX-F/NO. 03590 W/CPL GRACE OHAERI, signed by ACP London M. Aloba of zonal (DFA). The letter referred to another letter from the Enugu State Command, Department of Finance and Administration No. AH:670/ENS/PROV/VOL.1/45 dated 21st August, 2019 and directed that the CP to ‘ensure that the Orderly Room proceeding is forwarded urgently, please”.

Till date, Drumnewsonline gathered that the Enugu State Command had not responded hence Ohaeri has been staying without salary and facing the life trauma for delivering an honest service to her fatherland. A source at the Enugu State Command told Drumnewsonline based on condition of anonymity that ‘the woman’s condition is pathetic. She is paying the price of being firm and honest. Unfortunately, no one to speak for her. That’s our lot as junior officers. Her mates have long moved up and promoted as senior officers but she is there waiting for the day her creator would call her”.

Who will come to the aid of Ohaeri? Will the office of the IG give her succour? Many questions begging for answer. But, Ohaeri appeals that she be reinstated, paid her entitlements with promotions till date and retired with full benefits.

Source: Drumnewsonline

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