Kenneth Ofoma Residents of Railway Quarters Enugu yesterday accused policemen from Railway Police Division in the area of constant harassment and intimidation of the residents. The residents, including a journalist with The PUNCH Newspaper, Mr. Ralph Ede alleged that three policemen from the station on Wednesday threatened to shoot them should they interfere with their duty. The policemen were allegedly terrorising residents of the area through illegal arrests and extortion of money on flimsy excuses. Trouble reportedly started when there was commotion on the premises of a house where the reporter lived when he came out to know what was going on.
Ede, who narrated his encounter with the police, said “when I came out from the gate I saw three men on mufti who later turned to be policemen from Railway Police Division dragging one young man whose identity was yet to be known. “The young man was crying and a good number of people from the neighbourhood were dragging him with them (policemen), insisting that they won’t take the young man away.
“However, one of them started threatening me saying ‘if I come back the entire neighbourhood will run away for two weeks.” However, the policeman was alleged to have repeatedly threatened the journalist and others around thereby forcing Ede to inquire from the Chief Security Officer of the Neighbourhood what the problem was that resulted in the three men threatening to overrun everybody in the neighbourhood. While the Neighbourhood was narrating the event that led to the incident one of the operatives interjected, asking the reporter what his name was. Following the police enquiry, the reporter demanded to see their identity because they were not on uniform.
He told them that policemen who wanted the cooperation of the people to fight crime would not be threatening to overrun the people with their gun. Another policeman interjected and asked to know the journalist was and he told him his name saying that he was also a resident in the neighbourhood.
“I have seen your face in our station once or twice,” the policeman told him. Although, the policemen never identified themselves or why they were dragging the young man, one of them started threatening to shoot the journalist for daring to question them. Effort, however, to get the state Commissioner of Police, Ahmad Abdurrahman and the state Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Daniel Ndukwe for reaction was unsuccessful as both of them did not answer their calls or responded to text messages sent to them.
