An Open Letter to Akwa Ibom State Commissioner of Police---Isaac Gabriel Achong

Dear Mr. Achong:
Under normal circumstance, this could have been a letter to welcome you to Akwa Ibom State. But your corrupt practices and your dubious activities of the past, when you served as the Deputy Commissioner of Police in Akwa Ibom State, have compelled me to send this letter to you as a warning message that Akwa Ibom people do not want you to serve them as their Commissioner of Police---nothing less.


Akwa Ibom people do not want you in their State because they know you as one of the most corrupt police officers in the nation, who had told lies under oath, who had collaborated with criminals to perpetuate crime and evade justice, and as a police officer who is living beyond the capacity of your income, with billions of naira worth of properties owned around Akwa Ibom, Cross River, and other States.


The last time you served in Akwa Ibom State, records indicate that you were in charge of Operations. Under your supervision, armed robbery in the State was at its peak, kidnappings and political assassinations flourished with the blood of the innocent citizens shed in vain. What was annoying was that you did not use your office responsibly to thwart those crimes or even made any attempt to reduce them.


Rather, you used your office to cover-up criminals and collaborated with Godswill Akpabio to victimize the Ibibio-speaking indigenes of the State. The money you made from those criminals have enabled your ownership of a 102-room hotel in Odukpani area of the Cross River State and many others in Ogoja area, where you hail from. You have several high-priced properties in Akwa Ibom State and many people, including some of your police officers, are wondering how and where you got the money to purchase all those landed properties.


When you were the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations, six police officers were murdered in cold blood while escorting money to a bank for deposit. The culprits were apprehended, but you released them and several people with the knowledge of what transpired over the incident suspected that the reason you chose to set free those criminals was because you had collected money from them. Your fellow police officers were angry with you for being so insensitive towards the plight of their fellow officers, who fell in the line of duty. When you were transferred, all the police officers, who served under your command, were elated.


Before you left Akwa Ibom State, you swore that one day you will return to exact your revenge on those who caused your departure. Now that Godswill Akpabio has succeeded in bringing you back, you need to understand that the Akwa Ibom State, which you left behind, is not the same State in which you are now posted. The people are now enlightened; much more than you will ever know. They are also united and politically aware of their rights. Therefore, they are well equipped to fight any form of political oppression and violence that will be perpetuated in Akwa Ibom State for which you are brought back as an enforcer of the evil activities. If you haven't already, very soon you are going to find out that the popularity and influence of Akpabio in Akwa Ibom State is no longer as strong as it used to be.


Since your departure, Akwa Ibom State has remained peaceful. Kidnappings and assassinations have become crimes of the past. Incidents of armed robbery have also been significantly reduced. On the basis of your past records, Akwa Ibom people are worried and very much afraid that your return to the State is going to revive crimes. They are extremely worried that they will no longer feel safe and that your presence will bring another sense of insecurity which may awaken restlessness in every community, especially during the approaching campaign period for the governorship race, which will commence in a few months.


When you enlisted with the Nigerian Police, you swore to uphold the law and protect the citizens of Nigeria, no matter the domain of your service. However, available records indicate that as a senior police officer, on several occasions, you have abused your office, told lies against citizens, and trampled on their rights, with no opportunity left for them to defend themselves, or seek redress before a competent court of law.


Akwa Ibom people know why Godswill Akpabio has maneuvered the system for your return to the state. Akpabio, who is also living in delusions, really believes that bringing you back to the State will be enough for him to subdue the will of the people by using you to cover up his dirty games of politics, as you did in 2011.


During the 2011 election campaign, supporters of Godswill Akpabio, such as the notorious local thug by the name of Nse Ntuen, who was also detained in the United States for money laundering, had issued a warning to Senator John Udoedehe, of the then ACN party, not to campaign in Annang territory. When the Senator ignored the warning, and rightly so, by traveling to Ikot Ekpene to conduct his campaign, Nse Ntuen and the rest of the thugs ignited the riot, which spilled all the way to Uyo.

As the Deputy Commissioner of Police at the time, you cannot lie to the people, no one would believe you any way, that you had no prior intelligence that warned you of the impending riot. But instead of using the privileged intelligence to avert the riot, you collaborated and corroborated with Nse Ntuen and his cohort to perpetuate the riot of March 22, 2011.


As a senior police officer, who swore to uphold the law at all cost, it was your responsibility to maintain peace, adhere to truth, remain unbiased, and apprehend those who ignited and indulged in the riot for eventual prosecution. Instead, you told lies in defense of Akpabio by falsely accusing innocent individuals and organizations that were at least 10,000 miles from Nigeria, not to talk of being in Uyo to commit the riot. On March 24, 2012, in an affidavit which you swore to the then Attorney General of Akwa Ibom State, Assam Ekanem Assam, you lied under oath by swearing that Messrs. Thompson Essien, Nicholas Edet, and Ibibio People's Union were the culprits of the riot. In your warped mind, which was boxed inside the envelope of hallucinations, you swore an affidavit to support your imaginations based on information from a person whom you clearly stated as someone you never met---Mr. Clement Ikpatt.

Sir, in order to refresh your memory, I have hereby attached scanned copies of the affidavit for your perusal.


In 2012, when the two brothers of Helen Ukpabio were murdered, you were suspected as the corrupt police officer who collaborated with the killers to suppress justice and trampled on the rights of the victims. When Barrister Ukutt, who was hired and retained by the family of the victims to handle the case, approached you, you treated the lawyer in a very unprofessional way, as was reported in local newspapers at the time. Please click on this link to refresh your memory on what happened that day; (http://www.change.org/p/police-service-commission-igp-of-nigeria-police-sack-mr-gabriel-ashong-deputy-commissioner-of-police-akwa-ibom-state.)


When you served in Akwa Ibom State, you were known for abetting and aiding kidnapping, which explains why the people were happy that you were sent out of their State. They see your return as a revival of terror which you left behind when you served in the State as the Officer in charge of Police Operations. The people believe that Akpabio has brought you back in order to use you and the men in uniform under your command to intimidate the innocent people and abet in the kidnapping and assassinations of those who will oppose Akpabio's doctrine of imposition.

It may interest you to know that Akwa Ibom people are tired of the type of dirty politics of 2011. They are tired of having their loved ones shot at. They are tired of having their men and women kidnapped and stuffed inside the trunk of a car like goats. They are tired of unnecessary killings where they had to stand and helplessly watch their loved ones sprayed with bullets in broad day light all in the name of politics. Akwa Ibom are peace-loving people. They want peace. In order to enjoy that peace, they are not interested in having a Police Commissioner who will make them shed more tears and feel insecure and unsafe in their various communities. They want you out of Akwa Ibom State.


On September 14, 2014, there was an article in the social media against your return to Akwa Ibom State. Let me end this letter with the words of an activist, who was quoted in the article:

“Since Mr. Achong's departure, kidnapping is seen as a thing of the past but now the citizens are worried that they will have to relive it all over again as Achong returns to perpetuate his unfinished business of kidnapping and assassination he championed.”


To avoid bloodshed, assassinations, and kidnappings that occurred when you served as the Deputy Commissioner of Police, the activist called on the Acting Inspector General of Police to transfer you out of Akwa Ibom State.


Today, I join with other activists and the entire people of the State to call for your removal from Akwa Ibom. The people have rejected you and do not require your service because they have no confidence in your ability to protect them against crimes. I am calling on every Akwa Ibom State indigene, irrespective of political affiliations, to unite and call for your removal from Akwa Ibom State.


Written by
Ikpafak Thompson Essien
The Voice of the Poor Masses
Defender of the Oppressed
Social Critic
A native of Ibibio Nation of Ubium Republic extraction, now living in the safe and beautiful city of Portland, Oregon, where no AKPF, ADUMA, ADV, and Akwa Ibom State politicians can reach.

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Articles by Ikpafak Thompson Essien