The victims were said to be abducted from different parts of the state by Uchendu and his team and their whereabouts were unknown till date.
Aggrieved families of the victims of extrajudicial killings and abduction in Kogi State have petitioned the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Alkali Baba Usman over the alleged disappearance and killing of over 150 indigenes of the state since 2019 believed to be political opponents of Governor Yahaya Bello.
The atrocities were allegedly carried out by Uchendu Nicholas Akalieze, the Commander Navy Special Forces in the state.
Some of the victims according to the relatives include; Musa Adelabu, Rufai Jimoh, Hadi Abdulmaliki, Kasim Ismaila, Monday Idowu, Ismaila Momoh and others.
The victims were said to be abducted from different parts of the state by Uchendu and his team and their whereabouts were unknown till date.
One of the victims, Hon. Musa Adelabu who was the Chairman Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of Okene Local Government Area was allegedly abducted by the team since August 10, 2019 from his residence and no word from him.
Jimoh was also abducted on January 27, 2021 along old Ageva Secretariat on the Lagos Highway while Abdulmaliki was seized on January 3, 2022 at Ihima by the same Special Forces.
In a petition written by their lawyer, Shedrack Demaki dated January 23, 2023 obtained by SaharaReporters, the families called on the IGP to investigate the case and prosecute the naval officer in accordance with the law.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja, on Monday, Shedrack said Akalieze was further emboldened to continue carrying out his dastardly acts because all the petitions written against him by the victims’ families had never been treated nor investigated by the relevant authorities.
According to Shedrack “We are saying that we are not in Banana Republic and Nigeria still has laws. You can’t just be breaking laws leaving your constitutional role.
“The question we want to ask the Chief of Naval Staff is that upon all the series petitions by other law firms, human rights organisations over the years even by the families of the victims, he has never acted upon those petitions and that gave credence to the rumour we are hearing that Commander Uchendu Nicholas Akalieze has the backing of Chief of Naval Staff.
“Since he has been reposted back, he has always maintained that nothing can be done and that if we like, we should write millions of petitions, that he would not be posted out of Kogi State.”
It was gathered that several petitions had been written to the Department of State Security ( DSS ), Inspector-General of Police and Chief of Naval Staff in respect of his brutality but none had yielded the desired results and no action had been taken so far.
