By Bassey Bassey
Calabar
The Ikot Ansa Qua clan in Calabar Municipality has urged the Zone 6 Command of the Nigeria Police Force intensify efforts in fishing out the prime suspect in the attempted kidnapp and murder of one Felix Iso and others for comprehensive interrogation and arraignment.
Addressing newsmen at the Ntoe’s Palace in Calabar, the Assistant Secretary,Nkonib Qua Clan, Ntufam Francis Effiom described the series of recent media reports linking the state government and the community to the purported abduction, disappearance and kidnap of the embattled chief as “fabricated propaganda intended to divert attention from the web of criminal and civic litigations Omin has entangled himself in over the Summit Hill Land”.
According to Ntufam Effiom” Those behind the propaganda linking us and government security agencies are acting a script meant to divert attention. In their reports,one version said Omin was ambushed and whisked away along the road after obtaining a landmark court victory against the state government in a legal dispute over land on December 21 last year while another version reported that he was arrested at home while celebrating the legal victory with friends and well wishers on the same December 21″
“But interestingly, Ntufam Maurice Omin and Donatus Etim were interrogated at Zone 6 Police Headquarters by officers of the Anti Vice Unit on December 23 over a petition from the community to the AIG over the attempted kidnapp and murder of Felix Iso and others by a bunch of hoodlums unleashed on them by the duo at Summit Hill Land”
” Interestingly, during interrogation,Omin admitted that the hoodlums, armed with guns and other dangerous weapons who kidnapped Felix Iso and manhandled others who were detailed to lead surveyors to verify beacon stones were his boys. He also said that he gave the instruction for them to release Felix Iso after he was called and brief that they have captured an intruder on his property.
“That was December 23. Upon that shocking confession,the Police demanded that he should produce the person he spoke with on phone and gave instructions for the release of Felix the following day being December 24.He pleaded that since 24 was Christmas Eve,he should be allowed to bring the person to the station on Friday, December 27.
“This was accepted. Next thing was reports circulating on social media that he has been kidnapped, abducted by security agencies in connivance with the community. We know nothing about anything him since we left Zone 6 Police Headquarters since then. The unfolding drama is shocking to us”
“As far as we are concerned.
This is a well orchestrated ploy to escape trails and looming imprisonment from pending cases instituted against him for contempt and criminal matters emanating from the Summit Hill Land.
“For instance. The community in 2019 entered into an agreement with Christonel Nigeria Limited for the development of residential estate at the Summit Hill Land. And Omin was privy to the deal.
Due to COVID-19,the project could not take off. In 2022,the Company came back and we gave them a go ahead having gotten all necessary approvals from government. But Ntufam Maurice Omin ordered them to leave to avoid chaos and mayhem, telling them he is the sole owner of the land and nothing can happen there without his consent.
The Company went to Court and obtained an Order granting them access without any hindrance from Omin,his agents and the community. But again,Omin and his hoodlums chased them away, beat up one of the company staff, inflicting him with severe bodily injuries , thereby obstructing the Court Order. The Company had since sued Omim for assault and contempt of court injunction.
” Apart from constituting a nuisance to the community,his conducts and actions have become serious embarrassment to us as a people. Such behaviours are alien to our culture.
“We are therefore calling on the Nigeria Police Force to urgently collaborate with other security agencies in fishing Ntufam Maurice Omin Iso out from his hiding place. He must face the law because no one is above the law. His purported abduction or whatever is a smoke screen to enable him escape but for how long? We won’t fall to this diversionary antics. We need Omin and those kidnappers to be brought to book so that peace and tranquility can return to our community ” He stressed.
In his reaction,the Director of Public Prosecution in Cross River,Okoi Ukam Esq dismissed as blatant lie the insinuation that Omin won a case against the state government thereby triggering his purported abduction.
According to the DPP” There is no record indicating that the was a case Omin obtained judgement against the state government over Summit Hill Land or any other land in dispute. The only case we have in our records is the matter Ntufam Maurice Omin Iso and Ntufam Donatus Etim dragged the state government to court for handing over the Summit Hill Land to the landlord community instead of the duo who stood in for the Nkonib Ikot Ansa Qua Clan Community in representative capacity. That case is still pending in the court.
“We will like those paddling the information that he obtained a landmark victory against the state in a land tussle to please furnish us and public with the details of the case,and the court that entertained and decided that matter’
When contacted,the Police Public Relations Officer PPRO,Zone 6, ASP Edim Obazi confirmed that Ntufam Maurice Omin was at the station on December 23 for interrogation based on a petition from Ikot Ansa to the Assistant Inspector General of Police over attempted kidnapp on some youths of the area who at the Summit Hill Land
In her words” He was here on December 23 on invitation and after the interrogation. He promised to bring one of the suspects in the case precisely on December 27.
