A former governor of Anambra State Peter Obi has said he’s waiting for an invitation from the state’s Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Police Brutality, Extra-Judicial Killings to speak to allegations against him of taking rash actions following a report by the disbanded SARS Police unit.
The Chairman of the panel, Justice Veronica Umeh had said Mr. Obi or anyone indicted by petitioners will be invited to appear before the panel and also give testimonies.
A petitioner, Bonaventure Mokwe had accused the former governor of rash actions following SARS reports, claiming he was arrested and tortured by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad and his hotel demolished by the governor over alleged involvement in kidnapping activities.
Mokwe filed a five-page petition to the panel and is also demanding a public apology from the state government for being branded a kidnaper and kept in SARS custody for 81 days without any charges against him.
“I am waiting for the panel invitation, if they invite me, I believe those of us who have been in government should be able to answer for their actions especially when we leave office because it will help in building a better country, and that’s what democracy is all about,” Obi said when he appeared on ARISE News.
According to the former governor, he “saved the life of Mokwe, I was in my office and I saw a security report that two human heads with blood dripping all over there had been found in a hotel in Onitsha with a cache of AK-47 and that the people have surrounded to burn down the building.
“What I normally do in this type of thing is to manage the situation because we already had what we can call a rule that if we find a house being used by a kidnapper that we should pull it down. In this case, there were two human bodies, we are not even talking about whose heads were those, so that was what happened, but again I will leave it to the panel.”
By Abel Ejikeme