By Okey Nwanguma
Mrs. Ann Ebere Okpara, informed NOPRIN that she was abducted and detained for eleven days under horrendous conditions by Intelligence Response Team (IRT) operatives, led by a man she simply identified as Phillip. She said she was arrested, detained for 11 days, tortured and dehumanized because they wanted to use her to lure her husband whom they actually wanted to arrest.
She informed NOPRIN as follows:
That on the 14th of July, 2017 she received a call from the phone number: 09033997455 and the caller informed her that she had a DHL parcel to collect; that she didn’t call back because she wasn’t expecting any parcel, until later, the caller called her again and asked her the nearest bus stop to her residence, which she gave as Olowonla bus stop at Igando, because she did not suspect anything.
That when she got to the bus stop, she ran into three men who surrounded her and ordered her to get into their car, but she resisted and asked who they were, and they told her they were police officers and that they were taking her to the nearby Igando police station.
That when she tried to inquire the reason for her arrest, they started hitting and punching her, and one of them punched her on her right eye and she could not open that eye again until some days later while in the police cell.
That rather than take her to Igando Police Station, as they said they would, they took her straight to the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) at the Lagos State Police Headquarters, Ikeja where one of the Officers, Christian an operative attached to IRT asked her to write her statement.
That Christian asked her what her husband does for a living and she told him her husband is an Engineer, but he forced her to write that her husband is a kidnapper, and that she didn’t know that her husband is a kidnapper, and she wrote that.
That another Officer, Philip ordered that she be put in the cell with a threat that she will suffer.
That she begged them to let her go because of her one year-old sick baby, but they refused.
That while she was in detention, another Officer, Idowu was chatting with her husband claiming to be a member of a kidnapping gang and demanding from him the sum of ten million naira (N10,000,000) as ransom for the release of his wife.
That her husband, who by this time, didn’t know where the men who abducted his wife came from and where they took her to, told Idowu that he didn’t have such amount of money to pay but said he could raise the sum of two hundred thousand naira (N200,000.), which Idowu turned down.
That on the 20th of July, Christian called her out from her cell and took her to his office where he, Philip, Idowu and three other officers started to beat her, hitting, punching, slapping and flogging her with belt and other objects.
That Philip flogged her with a belt and injured her on her hand while one other officer hit her on the forehead with the heel of his shoe, causing her a deep injury and bleeding, with blood flowing all over her body and covering the floor of the office.
That the officer who hit her with the shoe gave her a rag to clean up and to hold the blood from flowing from the deep wound on her forehead.
That she bled until she started losing strength, and she had not eaten anything that day
That she begged them for water as she lay on the floor but they refused to give her water.
That later, the officer who broke her head threw a half used sachet of water at her but she was too weak to pick it up and she had to be assisted by her ‘Cell Marshall’ one Ijeoma who was in the office while the brutality was going on.
That her ‘Cell Marshall’, Ijeoma gave her some of the water to drink.
That when she had regained little strength, Christian and Idowu put her in hand-cuff and took her to her street and parked some distance from her house; they brought out a phone and asked her to call her younger brother and sister to come down and meet them on the street, and she did and they came.
That the police officers deceived her sister and brother by informing them that her husband committed a crime using her phone and that was why they arrested her, and that she would rot in jail and her children will grow in the street of Lagos and they would never see her again unless they are willing to help them to arrest her husband.
That her sister brought some clothes for her while her brother gave her the sum of four thousand naira (N4,000) for feeding, and on their way back to the station, Idowu collected two thousand naira (N2,000.) from her to fuel their vehicle, and they got back to the headquarters around 8 pm.
That with the assistance of her brother, the police officers on Friday, the 22nd of July , 2017 eventually arrested her husband at their residence , collected her two black hand bags, one rechargeable lamp, one lamp bulb, two phone chargers and their Camry drop light.
That Christian and Idowu demanded the sum of one hundred thousand naira (N100,000) for her bail, but they were only able to provide twenty thousand naira (N20,000) which Christian collected on Sunday, the 24th of July and released her.
That when she went to visit her husband at the station and inquired from him what offence he committed, her husband told her that he sold some health products to one Nwachinemere who turned out to be Evans, who is standing trial for kidnapping.
That her husband supplied Evans products worth one hundred and twenty thousand naira (N120,000) and Evans paid him and ‘dashed’ him additional fifty thousand naira (N50,000) to help him track someone who he told him was owing him some millions of naira. The total amount of money her husband collected from Evans was N170,000.
That the next time she went to the station, accompanied by her sister, to see her husband, Christian demanded from her money for the recharge card he bought from a card seller before he would bring her husband out for them to see him, and she paid one thousand naira for the card
That Christian told her and her elder sister to return the one hundred and seventy thousand naira (N170,000) which Nwachinemere (Evans) gave to her husband so that ‘his hands will be off from Evans’ case’.
That on the 7th of August she gave Christian the sum of one hundred thousand naira (N100,000) in the presence of Idowu and Philip in their office at night around 8pm, remaining the sum of seventy thousand naira (N70,000)
That on the 11th of August she gave Christian another five thousand naira (N5,000) for the help he said he wanted to render to her husband
That on the 12th August, Christian called her on phone and told her that her husband lied to them because they had gone to Abuja with his photograph and asked Evans how he knew her husband and how much he gave to him, and that Evans told them that he asked her husband to monitor somebody for him and that he gave him seven hundred thousand naira (N700,000)
That Christian further told her that in addition to the money that Evans paid her husband for the health product, all the money is now one million naira and that they have to return all the money.
That she told Christian that she wanted to sell their fridge and air conditioner to raise some money and that her husband’s friend also wanted to use their car as collateral to borrow money to raise two hundred thousand naira (N200,000), but that her husband’s friend said she needed to tell her husband first and get his consent regarding the interest on the loan
That Christian brought her husband out from the cell and she discussed with him and he asked her to sell anything she could to raise money and give to the police, as demanded.
That on the 26th August, she called Christian and told him she wanted to come and see her husband but he said she could not see him unless she brings along the two hundred thousand naira (N200,000) which her husband’s friend wanted to collect as loan
That on the 27th August, she went to the station to give her husband some money for feeding, and Christian told her that they took her husband to see Evans again and that Evans said he gave her husband another money.
That on the 28th August, Christian called her and told her that he wanted to ‘hands off her husband’s case’ since she didn’t want to bring the money he demanded.
That later Christian called her brother Nonso and asked him for money if he didn’t want his in-law to die in the cell and Nonso told Christian that they don’t have the type of money they were demanding
That the last day she visited the station to see her husband was on the 5th of September, and that day, she begged Christian to allow her husband to call some of his friends who were making efforts to raise money for him to give to Christian and his team members, and Christian allowed him to make the calls but nothing much has come from the effort so far.
That as at October 20th, it was exactly three months since her husband was arrested from his house by operatives of IRT led by Philip, Idowu, and Christian after she had been previously abducted, inhumanely treated and released after paying N20,000.
That her husband has serious health problems. He is asthmatic and was due for a surgery to remove hernia before he was arrested and that she fears for his life.
That the IPO, Christian has been asking her to come and bring money to buy some antibiotics for him.
That her husband’s lawyer has made several efforts to see his client but has been denied access and the man is rotting away in the cell without either being released or charged to court, if they have evidence to do so.
That the team is only interested in extorting more and more money from the family, having so far collected N100.000, N50,000, N20,000, N5000, and N4000 on various occasions
They are still demanding the sum of two million seven hundred thousand naira (N2.7 million) to release him but the family can’t afford such money.
That as a result of her bringing to the attention of NOPRIN the case of her unlawful detention for 11 days during which she was tortured and ill-treated, they threatened to charge her husband, Mr. Linus Okpara, to court alongside Evans.
That due to threats, the family is afraid to go to the station again to visit Linus and they have serious fears due to his precarious health condition
That rather than continuing to deceive the family and extorting money from them, on the false promise that they would free Linus, the family wants the police to charge Linus to court if they have credible evidence linking him to any crime.
That the police, rather than charge him to court, embarked on media trial and propaganda, posting false information with his photographs on the Internet and causing to be published in various media dubious statements which they attribute to Linus, apparently having obtained them from him under serious torture, coercion and threat.
That Christian refused to allow Linus make voluntary statement insisting he must adopt predetermined statement
That this resort by the IRT to media trial and propaganda is a face saving subterfuge and machination to evade responsibility and accountability for unlawfully detaining and subjecting her to torture and other inhumane and degrading treatment for 11 days, and for continuing to indefinitely detain her husband and demanding and extorting money from his family.
That the family demands Justice. They demand an impartial and independent investigation into the alleged criminal and illegal activities of Phillip and other operatives of the IRT.
That the family members are no longer feeling safe since Christian has been tracking all of their family members’ telephone calls and threatening her brother, Arinze that it was because of the moves her sister made by approaching NOPRIN and the media and seeking justice over her plight and the plight of her husband that his brother in-law has remained in custody.
Nwanguma, former national coordinator of NOPRIN, is the executive director of Rule of Law, Advocacy and Accountability Centre (RULAAC)
