Date Published: 03/14/10

OFF LOADING ALOY OKORIE AS IMO CP By Ajumah Oparah

Within and outside the Nigerian Police Force the gist is that a posting or transfer to Imo State is almost a guaranteed goldmine and farewell to poverty.  The rush to Imo State ironically is not limited to the officer cadre alone, it is such that even among the rank and file, there is high jostling to be posted to Imo State and we ask how and at what time did Imo State become a number one choice for men of the Nigerian Police Force.  Information pieced together have it that Imo State became a prime choice of Police officers during the period between 1990 – 1997 when young men took to the business of Advanced  fee fraud aka 419 but these young men did not stop at making cheap money but began making life unbearable for the average Imo man  such that they  would use sirens and chase people off the road, confiscate peoples land including wives, at that time the fear of a 419 practitioners in Imo State became the beginning of wisdom.  In all these, they had the backing of the men of Nigerian Police who graciously provided them with security to the chagrin of members of the public.  Matters however came to a head in 1996 with the positing of a certain Police Commissioner, Mr Abure to head the Imo State Command.  Throwing caution and ethics to background with people too afraid to ask questions, Abure literally offered for a fee services of Imo Police Command to these touts who many knew never had a good certificate, never had visible employment before their nefarious acts brought them fortunes but these fellows were not content with being social miscreants but diverted their hands to blood letting, rituals and kidnapping until the people one morning rose to the occasion with the OTOKOTO saga and showed the 419 boys the way out of Owerri and Imo State but not without burning down their ill acquired wealth. Even with the otokoto saga, the activities of 419 in Imo State have refused to go away in that with the flag off of politics in 1999, the boys began finding their way to Imo State.  Initially they limited their foray to traditional institutions in the State becoming as it were traditional Chiefs subsequently traditional rulers in some communities.  Thus having tasted their acceptability using the traditional institutions, they quickly forayed into the political institutions such that by 2003, many of them found their ways into Council Chairmanship, the Legislature while a few of them attempted to govern the State even on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party.  By 2007 these fellows have succeeded in covering the entire political space in that from the position of councilor to that of Governor, the 419 men totally became so visible that they became the candidate to beat at any given time.  While they land scape covering by 419 men was going unabated in Imo State some policemen began fighting over themselves to be posted to Imo State to take advantage of the loose situation in the State, infact a story was told of a Police Commissioner who was posted to Bayelsa State who not only rejected the positing but was found crying in his office oblivious of his superior who was embarrassed by his untoward act. According to reports, the man was eventually posted to Imo State and he threw a party to celebrate his posting.  There is also a case of Mr. Ilozuoke the immediate past Police Commissioner who was said to have rejected posting to his native Abia State several times preferring Imo State.  Whereas the previous Police Commissioners limited themselves to police duties, the same cannot be said of the present Police Commissioner in Imo State, Mr. Aloy Okorie. Initially posted to another State, the man was said to insist on Imo State or nothing counting on the support his kinsman and course mate who is the present Inspector- General of Police.  Thus rather than Police duties especially in a state where kidnapping, armed robbery, car snatching and murder has taken the centre stage , Mr. Aloy Okorie would rather become the agent of Imo State government carrying out the orders of Ikedi Ohakim, his brother Emmanuel and Mr. George Egu, the Security Adviser to the Governor.  It is scary to note that the same Mr. Okorie who came to Imo State in a weather beaten Mercedes Benz now has choice cars and choice properties all over Owerri courtesy of Mr. Emmanuel Ohakim and some 419 big guns in state perhaps that explains why Police Commissioner duties is basically limited to hounding Political opponents of Mr. Ikedi Ohakim and earning fat fees.  For instance, his first assignment in Imo state was the arrest of Dr. Alex Obi, the former PDP Chairman in Imo State on trumped up charges of using his phones to send text messages asking people not to attend the switch over to PDP by Mr. Ikedi Ohakim, the Governor of Imo State.  Dr. Alex Obi was again arrested shortly after on another useless charge of granting press interview wherein he expressed his misgivings on the way Imo State was being administered by Mr. Ohakim.  The next on Okorie’s list became the former Speaker of Imo State House of Assembly, Barr. K.K. Nwagwu but the man couldn’t hold anything against the former Speaker but preferred to ask him to support Mr. Ohakim.  The case of Mr. Maximus Uba is even baffling and suspicious.  Invited by Mr. Ilozuoke the former Commissioner of Police over defamation charges, Uba was granted a 7 day bail by Police authorities.  Convinced by that Police had taken sides with Governor Ohakim, Mr. Uba headed to the Federal High Court Owerri where he got an order of court restraining the Police from arresting him, but Mr. Alloy Okorie would ignore court order and a deploy three vehicles, nine mobile policemen an Inspector of Police and a Superintendent of Police to abduct Mr. Maximus Uba, a well known journalist from Abuja citing jumping of bail however all and Sundry know that he did all that to remain in the financial books of the Governor and I ask what happened to the subsisting High Court order restraining Police from arresting Mr. Uba, who signed the Court warrant with which Police effected Uba’s arrest .  The case of activist Samuelson Iwuoha is even intriguing.  Arrested on the orders of Governor Ohakim, Samuelson  was beaten to pulp by the Governor Ohakim himself some how Mr. Okorie was said to have stumbled into the show of shame but did nothing, said nothing instead he advised Samuelson to co-operate with Governor Ohakim.  He was later to aid the illegally by prosecuting a battered Iwuoha on the orders of Mr. Ikedi Ohakim and his brother Emmanuel.  Thinking that Mr. Okorie would wear his thinking cap and face his Police duties for which he was posted to Imo State, the man after the assault on Samuelson was to send a pick up load of Policemen to Lagos to go after Barr. Ziggy Azike, the 2007 ANPP Governorship candidate all because Mr. Azike indicated interest to challenge Mr. Ohakim in 2011, again has it become a crime for people to challenge an incumbent. 

In all these the questions now become, what does Police Commissioner Okorie want, and why is he holding the brief of Mr. Ohakim other than that of Imo people for which he was sent to the state.  We also ask why the Force headquarters is keeping a blind eye to the activities of Mr. Okorie and has his belligerence got to do with the fact that both he and the IGP Onovo are brothers.  But the truth of matter as it concerns Mr. Okorie is that the man has failed woefully and that generality of the people are tired of services as the Police Commissioner, yes a situation in which Mr. Aloy Okorie cannot find a solution to the unending issue of murdering, kidnapping and armed robbery ravaging Imo State but fancies hounding political opponents of Governor Ikedi Ohakim can no longer be tolerated by the good people of Imo State.  Thus it is either Mr. Aloy Okorie gets down to his duties as the Police Commissioner or be prepared to be forced out by progressive forces who so far are disappointed by his person, his style of administration and his get quick rick man manner.  For now the option left for the Police authorities is to sack the man as redeploying him to another state will not be the answer.  The time to off load Mr. Aloy Okorie as Imo CP is now. We need not say more. 

Ajumah Oparah, a Teacher lives in Imo State