Secret Reporters No place to hide
Kufre Carter
The adage “Police is your friend” and “Bail is free” seems to be untrue at the Police Headquarters State CID, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State where the Police are obviously an enemy of the citizens owing to the many illegalities being perpetrated by men and women of the force at the State CID.
Investigation into the activities of the police force in Akwa Ibom State led to this medium deploying an undercover reporter to unravel the complaints brought to our news desk. A visit by our Secret Reporter to the General Cell of the station showed that inmates are treated in the most inhumane way possible and some are denied access to food and water by the wardens/officers attached to the cell block.
An interview of one of the inmates who spent 3 days in the cell indicate that the Police officers demand gratification to the tune of N500 per round of visitation to an inmate for whatever reason. This logic suggests that any visitor to an inmate must pay the sum of N500 or N1000 before he or she is granted access to speak to the inmate.
Our reporter who posed as a visitor to one of the inmates paid the illegal N500 just to be granted access to a ‘ghost inmate’. To deliver food and water to an inmate, the officers also charge a flat rate of N500 per round, meaning that each time an inmate of the cell eats food brought from outside, the officers on duty at the time earn N500
An average of 100 visitors per hour troop in to visit inmates and are forced to pay N500 to the greedy officers on duty which is illegal, and some of the officers even snatch food brought for the inmates and eat it themselves depriving the inmate of the food.
A policewoman with the name Henritta Etim, along with her accomplice, Abasiama Ekanem (also an officer) charged our reporter N500 just to allow him access to an inmate and another N500 to allow food to be given to the inmate.
Secret Reporters obtained audio evidences from Police officers working at the headquarters where the CID is located on how it’s a must for visitors to bribe them before anyone is allowed access to an inmate or ‘no show’. The inmates cell seen by our reporter is likened to the cell where Libya refugees are kept, with no single care for them but maltreatment, as well as frustrate efforts to grant bail unless a huge sum of money is parted with.
Such illegality is appalling considering the public outcry by citizens for reforms in the Police Force and possible dismissal of the corrupt ones to help restore the long lost confidence of the people in the efficiency and reliability of the Police Force.
All efforts to reach the Akwa Ibom Police PRO and the new commissioner of police as at the time of this report was not successful as their phone numbers were not connecting.
