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Augustine Okpara is sad and angry that the Rivers State Police Command illegally auctioned his properties worth millions of Naira for a paltry sum. While Okpara is demanding justice.
On September 10, 2008, Augustine Okpara and five others were arraigned before the Chief Magistrate Court 4, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on a 21-count charge bearing on forgery, stealing and receiving stolen property.
Almost a year after, precisely April 2009, Okpara was discharged and acquitted by the Chief Magistrate E.C. Woke, after the complainant in the matter, the United Bank for Africa, withdrew the case from court.
Okpara then approached the police at the State Criminal Investigations Department, Port Harcourt that investigated his case to release all his confiscated properties. He however got a rude shock when he learnt that his three cars that were impounded by the police had been auctioned.
Okpara was told that his three cars — a black Mitsubishi Pajero jeep with number plate EI 210 ABJ; an ash coloured Mitsubishi Pajero jeep with number plate DQ 557 PHC and a Mercedes Benz CLK saloon car with number plate HH 188 KJA were sold in July 2009 for N5,000 each and it has been impossible for him to have them back.
That was how Okpara started the battle to recover his cars, but this has not been fruitful.
Okpara said that in 2007, the police arrested him for forgery and stealing. “They confiscated my house and office properties together with three of my vehicles.”
He alleged that while his prosecution was going on, the police at the SCID allegedly obtained a false affidavit to sell his cars.
Okpara said, “In the affidavit, the police said that my cars were abandoned by people that were involved in oil bunkering and pipeline vandalisation. The affidavit was false because I was charged to court on Charge Number PMC/ 1335C/2008 for forgery and stealing. Indeed, the policeman who swore to the false affidavit had admitted that his senior officers misled him and thereafter sold the vehicles to themselves for N5,000 each.
“When I eventually approached the police with the court judgment for the release of my properties, the exhibit keeper told us that the vehicles had been disposed off by the order of the Commissioner of Police, Bala Hassan. My office and house properties were however released to me, with the exception of my vehicles that Hassan had sold, as he was then the CP, Rivers State Command.”
Okpara said that he decided to call Hassan to verify if it was true that the CP was the one behind the sale of his cars. “I contacted Hassan on the phone and he said that the Inspector-General of Police authorised the sale through the Commissioner of Police, Sabo Ringim; and that if there is a problem, the IG will also make a statement. This is what Bala told me on phone and it is on record.
“Hassan is a super rich officer. When he wanted to sell the vehicles, the exhibit keeper advised him not to sell them since the case was still in court, but Hassan ordered the detention of the exhibit keeper. It is also on record.
“The female Chief Superintendent of Police who was holding brief as the Officer in Charge of the SCID also advised him not to sell the vehicles, but Hassan threatened to transfer the woman out of the SCID. The OC Legal similarly advised against the sale but Hassan refused to listen to anybody.
“The outgoing IG had earlier directed that Hassan should recover and return my vehicles to me; but rather than heed his superior’s instruction, Hassan advised that I should sue the police so as to get compensation since the IG authorised the sale.
“After the illegal auction, my Benz car was sighted in the compound of Hassan by a policeman on guard duty. Most of the trucks Hassan sold in Rivers State, their cases are still in court and their owners are not aware that the trucks have been sold. I came to know of mine because I was discharged from the court. You can imagine a senior officer falsifying documents, forging newspaper publications, swearing to false affidavits to sell exhibit vehicles of cases that are still in court all in the name of making money.”
At this stage, Okpara said he realised that he could not fight the battle alone and that he would need the police to recover his cars. He then wrote a petition to the Deputy Inspector-General of Police; and the Special Fraud Unit, Lagos, was detailed to investigate the matter.
The SFU in an investigation report about the case which was signed by an Assistant Commissioner of Police, Douglas Agbonleni, wrote, “It is a fact that Okpara Augustine was investigated for a case of fraud reported by the UBA for which you were charged to court in 2008 and eventually discharged and acquitted of all counts in April 2009.
“That it is a fact that your vehicles were impounded from you and registered as exhibits during the period of investigation and trial. That it is also a fact that the said vehicles were indeed sold through auction by the Rivers State Police Command in July 2009.
“Also, be advised that the report has been forwarded to the IG for further necessary action.”
Okpara’s lawyer, Ricky Tarfa and Co., is demanding a return of the cars to their client. In a letter to the IG, the law firm said, “Our client told us that he was arrested and subsequently charged to court on a 21-count charge of forgery and stealing on September 10, 2008 at the Chief Magistrate Court 4, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
“Okpara was discharged and acquitted by his worship E.C. Woke, who also ordered the release of our client’s confiscated properties, which included three cars and household properties, among other valuables.
“It is however unfortunate that our client approached the Police for the release of his properties in their custody only to be emphatically informed by the exhibit keeper that the properties had been disposed by Hassan.
“Our client’s grouse in this case is that due process was not followed in the disposal of his properties, hence he was adjudged innocent in the alleged charges and there was no subsisting court order empowering the police to so act. More so, the time-frame for the disposal of such properties, assuming he was convicted of any charges, had not elapsed.”
In a telephone interview with our correspondent last Wednesday, Hassan, who is now the CP, Abia State, refused to comment on the matter. He said, “The matter is before the IG, so I cannot comment on it.”
A day later. our correspondent sent him a text message imploring him to reply to the allegations against him but he did not respond.
The Federal Police Public Relations Officer, Shola Amore, in a telephone interview with our correspondent last Wednesday, however, advised Okpara to see the IG personally.
He said, “Okpara should see the IG personally over this matter. The IG operates an open-door policy. I’m not aware of this matter. Please call me tomorrow during office hours so that I can get more details for you.”
Amore, however, did not pick his calls or reply to the text message our correspondent sent to his phone the following day.
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