The letter, dated April 11 and signed by deputy commissioner of police Dan Bature, said Odinkalu was being summoned because the police were "investigating complaint of damaging remarks allegedly made by the chairman, Governing Council Commission of the National Human Rights Commission, against the Nigeria Police Force."
Excerpts of the letter were posted on the Internet yesterday. A senior police officer involved in the matter confirmed to Daily Trust last night that the force had written to Odinkalu, asking him to come and defend the allegations he made.
But the police officer said there was no plan to detain the NHRC chairman, contrary to a report by Premium Times website yesterday.
"You know we are both key players in the criminal justice system," the officer said while confirming the invitation letter sent to Odinkalu.
Asked about the reported detention plans, the officer said, "No, there is no plan to arrest or detain him at all. If the police want to arrest him they know how and where to get him."
Odinkalu made the remarks over which he now run into trouble with the police on March 5, while making a presentation at a programme organised by the National Association of Judiciary Correspondents.
During his presentation titled "plea bargain and the administration of justice in Nigeria," the NHRC chairman said, "The response of law enforcement to the incapability of the legal system to ensure convictions is an epidemic of third degree policing, torture and extra judicial executions. By some estimates, the police execute well over 2,500 detainees summarily every year."
Two weeks after he made his presentation, Mr. Odinkalu, who recently declared his asset publicly, received a letter personally signed by Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar, according to the Premium Times.
In the letter dated March 16, 2012, Abubakar accused Odinkalu of saying that "the police execute over 5,000 detainees summarily, every year."
Abubakar said the statement "is viewed seriously by the police high command as vexatious especially against the backdrop of its grave and negative implications on our national and corporate image."
The IG, who also accused Odinkalu of stating that "guilty police officers are hardly brought to justice," requested the NHRC chairman to "provide evidence or facts to support your assertion."
In Odinkalu's response, dated April 3, the human rights commission chief cited a report titled "Criminal Force: Torture, Abuse and Extra Judicial Killings by the Nigeria Police Force" as the source of his figures.
The report was issued in 2010 by the Network on Police Reform in Nigeria.
He also explained that the police IG quoted him wrongly and then forwarded the full text of his presentation. He therefore suggested a meeting with Mr. Abubakar, to allow him discuss the issues.
But the invitation letter for today's questioning contains no reference to previous exchanges between Abubakar and Odinkalu. It only stated that the human rights boss was being investigated for those remarks.
When contacted by Premium Times, Mr. Odinkalu said, "If the police have told you about the invitation, let them give you the details."
When asked to comment on the correspondence between him and the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Odinkalu declined.
"Conversations take place within public institutions and between individuals. There are communications between public officials. I am not in a position to confirm or deny anything," he said.
A spokesman for the NHRC, Nasir Ladan, told Daily Trust last night that he was not aware of Odinkalu's invitation by the Police.
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Daily Trust