Police in Rivers State last week descended violently on an elderstatesman, Pastor Sokari Soberekon and beaten him mercilessly. Soberekon was thrown on the ground severally by some drunk armed police officers serving in Abali Police station at the Isaac Boro Park flyover in the Port Harcourt City Local Government Area.
Problems started when the elderstatesman went to check his land situated along Aba road by Sangama Street in Port Harcourt. Traders around the axis of the railway line had encroached on the said parcel of land, and moreso the officers in the Abali police station have made it a duty to collect illegal levies from the traders within the axis.
There is no dispute that the said land known as Plot 49, block 256 Orije layout belongs to Pastor Soberekon with a Certificate of Occupancy (C. of O) No. 98 Vol. XLPH registered in the Registry of Lands at Port Harcourt.
Speaking to this weekly on his sick bed, Soberekon who had plasters on his face and body recalled that precisely on the 22nd June, 2006, his counsel, H.E Wabara Esq sent a petition to the then Governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili concerning the said plot of land, adding that there is no day, the state government revoked his parcel of land.
Our reporter who sighted a letter sent to Soberekon by one B.W Ayonoadu, a former Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Lands on the 20th December, 2007 confirmed that the said land belongs to Soberekon.
An eyewitness who spoke to our correspondent condemned the action of the police, describing it as cruel and uncivilized. According to the eyewitness, who pleaded anonymity said that the insult and the assault of the elderstateman was a big slap on the faces of the Rivers people. He called on the relevant authorities to bring to book the perpetrators of the evil act.
The eyewitness demanded for an apology from the Rivers police command for the senseless behavior of its officers.
Soberekon had earlier blamed his woes on the Officer in Charge of Works in Abali police station and called on the Commissioner of Police not to allow any officer to soil his administration. He appealed to the state governor, Chief Nyesom Wike and relevant authorities to come to his aid by finding a lasting solution to the problem, and insisting that the said plot of land belongs to him only and nobody else. ###
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