As the land dispute between Abagana and Ukpo towns in Anambra State gets
messier, multi-billionnaire businessman and chairman of Atlas Petroluem,
Prince Arthur Eze has handed Mr. Samuel Okaula, the State”s Commissioner
of Police N50 million bribe to declare certain prominent sons of Abagana,
capital of Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State “Wanted for
Conspiracy and Murder”.
Arthur Eze, who prides himself as Eze N’Ukpo (King in Ukpo) is smarting
from the recent attack by yet-to-be identified persons on two police vans
and a police station he gave the police to secure the disputed land.
A police source told Pointblanknews.com that top on the list of persons
from Abagana Prince Arthur Eze has instigated COMPOL Okaula to declare
“Wanted” are Ichie Emmanuel Nwude, Chiefs Dennis Okafor, Sunday Okafor,
John Emengini, and a lawyer, Annie Ofoedu.
According to the police source, Arthur Eze had initially given
Commissioner Okaula N40 million to cover the expenses of deploying Special
Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) operatives from Awka to “comb” Lagos and Abuja
for the “suspects.” The source disclosed that the operatives were to lure
the suspects with telephone calls that they were wanted in the SARS
offices in Abuja and Lagos, and were to be arrested and herded to Awka, as
a prize for Prince Arthur Eze.
“When some of the SARS operatives blew their lid and bungled the
operation,” continued the source, “COMPOL Okaula requested another N10
million to enable him place advertorials in newspapers to declare the
suspects ‘Wanted’”. It is not clear when Okaula would run the
advertorials.
Since August 22, 2016, when Mr. Okaula personally led scores of armed
mobile policemen to ransack Abagana, several prominent sons of the town
have gone into hiding. During the raid, they arrested Chiefs Amobi
Ezekwe and Eugene Ezediegwe, Ebele Nwocho, Summer Nwazojie, and nineteen
other persons from Abagana.
Few days after the arrests, COMPOL Okaula, in a world press conference
gleefully paraded the 23 persons, whom he said were part of the over 200
terrorists that attacked Ukpo, overwhelmed four policemen on duty, killing
one Emmanuel Okafor, the security guard.
According to him “the assailants went further to bomb the police post and
10-room self-contained Police Barracks, having completely burnt down two
police vehicles. DPO Ukpo, who led a patrol team to the scene was shot.
Three other policemen received various degrees of bullet wounds from the
assailants” Okaula claimed. For effect, the police boss said intelligence
suggested that the assailants held a meeting at Owelle Inn, Abagana, a
hotel belonging to one Emmanuel Nwude, “where the dastardly plan was
hatched.”
Ten of the assailants, added COMPOL Okaula, were arrested at the hotel in
Abagana, with detectives arresting 13 other suspects including a certain
Amobi Ezekwe Ugbo, a man he described as their kingpin.
He stressed that a team from the Explosive Ordinance Department (EOD)
identified and detonated an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) while
recovering another one at the scene.
Okaula displayed four pump action guns with two live cartridges, three AK
47 rifles , three locally made pistols, cutlasses and other arms, which
he claimed were recovered from the suspects.
Checks by Pointblanknews.com however revealed that the 10 assailants said
to have been arrested at Owelle Inn, Abagana, were actually workers at the
hotel. One of the police officers who formed part of the operation told
Pointblanknews.com that 15 workers of EM hotel (not Owelle Inn), Abagana
were arrested but that, quite surprisingly, COMPOL Okaula ordered that
five of them be released almost immediately. Further investigations, said
the officer, revealed that all the five persons released were from Ukpo,
raising suspicion that Arthur Eze may have influenced their release.
Inspite of a court order on the police, COMPOL Okaula has maintained
custody of the 23 persons. Early in the week, the police boss boasted to a
local newspaper that he would carry on with the arrest of more persons
from Abagana, bragging that a petition against him by Abagana Welfare
Union to the police high command would come to naught. On Tuesday, police
operatives arrested a former member of the State House of Assembly from
Abagana, Hon George Okoye. A highly cerebral architect, Okoye was a
presidential aspirant on the platform of All Progressives Grand Alliance.
On the same day, armed policemen also arrested one Mrs Maria Egbe and her
husband, when he came to bail her. Okoye, Mr and Mrs Egbe have been in
detention ever since.
An eccentric businessman, Arthur Eze is not new to bribing the police to
declare persons who as much as disagree with him “Wanted.” Sources to the
billionaire admitted that “Eze N’Ukpo does not mind spending any amount of
money to get even with a person once his ego is put on the line.”
In March 2012, following his refusal to pay 30,000 Euros to a businessman
Major Okwuosa to deliver an armoured Maybach limousine, Arthur Eze spent
thrice the amount to bribe top police officers to declare Mr. Okwuosa
“Wanted”.
In a Special Police Gazette Bulletin issued by the office of the Inspector
General of Police dated January 9, 2012, the police declared Major
Emmanuel Okwosa “M” of No.18, Okwuosa Avenue, Ogui, Enugu “wanted” for
“the offence of Conspiracy in Obtaining the Sum of One Million US Dollar
(sic) under false pretense on (sic) October 2010 in Nigeria and Belgium”
According to the police bulletin, “Method used in committing the offence
is (sic) that the suspect conspire (sic) to obtain the sum of One Million
US Dollar (sic) with one Mr. Benoit Ceulemans of Carat Security Group,
Belgium, under false pretense to purchase a Maybach 62-S Armoured car from
the United States.”
Pointblankews.com checks however revealed that Mr. Okwuosa never defrauded
Arthur Eze. The duo had on a trip to Carat Security, Belgium, settled for
an armoured Mayback 62-S for $1 million. However, during the armouring,
Arthur Eze requested that the driver compartment be partitioned. For this,
the company charged an additional 30,000 euros, which Okwuosa paid.
However, when Arthur Eze wanted the car delivered to Nigeria, Okwuosa
demanded his refund. Arthur, according to checks, pleaded with the car
dealer to allow the shipment to Nigeria, upon which he would pay up.
Sources close to Okwuosa told Pointblanknews.com that the businessman,
fully aware of Arthur Eze’s reputation for being a serial debtor, declined
to play ball.
“Arthur Eze does not pay his cooks, drivers and other domestic servants.
He would owe them months on end, but would donate billions at every public
event. Infuriated by what he considered Okwuosa’s insolence, the
money-miss-road decided to teach the young man a lesson. What better way
to serve the lesson than to bribe officers like Samuel Okaula to declare
the young businessman ‘Wanted?’ Arthur Eze’s second business is soiling
the Nigerian Police Force. With scanty education and a fragile ego, he
deploys his questionable wealth to harassing innocent people with corrupt
police officers,” offered a police officer conversant with the matter.
Recently, Arthur Eze, who was the chief promoter of the late dictator
General Sani Abacha, was fingered in a crude plot to unseat Abia State
governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu over the latter’s refusal to be pocketed by
the diminutive moneybag.
Sources at the Louis Edet House described COMPOL Samuel Okaula as one of
the most corrupt police officers ever produced by the Nigeria Police
Force. As Commissioner of Police in Kwara State, Louis Edet House sources,
he mounted an intense lobby to be posted to Anambra State, which he said
was a gold mine, but was blocked by the immediate past Inspector General
of Police Solomon Arase.
“Okaula’s dream of coming to Anambra materialized a few months ago when he
met Arthur Eze. And like a dog on heat, Okaula has been running berserk
ever since, no thanks to Arthur Eze’s carrots,” declared the source.