BY EMEKA MAMAH
ENUGU — The Civil Liberties Organisation, CLO, in the South-East zone, yesterday, petitioned the Enugu State Police Command over alleged detention of one Henry Chukwuemeka Enwezor on trumped-up charges following a dispute over the estate of late Deputy Commissioner of Police Dr. Ann Ifeyinwa Mokwenye.
Mokwenye, a former police doctor, who retired December 26, 2010, died after a brief illness onJune 25, last year.
The CLO stated that the late female police officer adopted two children, including the said Henry, 28, and Obiageli, 10, who lived with her at her at 21A, Akpabio Street, G.R.A, Enugu, since 1991.
According to the CLO, it was after the late police commissioner’s death that some people who claimed to be relations of the woman appeared from nowhere and started using the police to deny the two adopted children of the deceased access to their mother’s property.
In its petition to the Enugu State Commissioner of Police, signed by the Zonal Director, Mr Olu Omotayo, the CLO condemned attempts to criminalise a civil matter in a bid to get rid of Henry Enwezor and take over his late mother’s property.
The trumped-up charge
The petition read in part: “In a bid to get rid of Henry Enwezor and take over his late mother’s house at 21A, Akpabio Street, they wrote several frivolous petitions from one police station to another until the recent petition written to the Commissioner of Police wherein they alleged that the young Enwezor broke into 21A, Akpabio Street, and stole his property and that of Patricia Owoh.
“Police officers from “X squad” invaded 21A, Akpabio Street, on March 21, 2013, arrested Henry, broke his late mother’s safe and collected all the cheque booklets and documents relating to all the various accounts operated by the deceased in her lifetime and took both the documents and Henry to the state Police Headquarters where he was detained for breaking into his own house and also stealing some property therein.
“Henry was detained at the Police Headquarters from March 21, 2013 to March 26 2013, when he was arraigned before the Magistrates’ Court which remanded him in prison custody for alleged housebreaking and stealing.
“This matter is purely civil in nature; there is nothing criminal about it which is an issue arising out of the administration of estate of the late DCP.”
These questions call for answer viz: When has it been part of Police duties to administer the estate of a deceased person? Have the police taken over the duty of the office of the Administrator General and Public Trustees? Does the officer in charge of ‘X Squad’ has the power to determine that Henry Chukwuemeka Enwuzor is not a legal son of Dr. Muokwenye ? Do the Police have the power to take all the documents relating to all the bank accounts of the deceased with a view to subsequently hand them over to Henry’s accusers? It is our submission with the greatest respect that the answers to these questions are in the negative,” CLO said.
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