A 40yr old man identified as Effiong Elemi-Edu has narrated how he
was imprisoned for 15 years for the murder of politician, Alfred
Rewane, which it was later discovered that he was not to involved in.
Narrating
his ordeal to
Aljazeera, Effiong who is from Cross Rivers, said on
October 6th 1995 in the Ikeja part of Lagos state, he had gone out to buy
suya for himself and his wife when suddenly he heard gunshots.
According to him, he took cover and later decided to run to his house.
As he made the move to run home, he was halted by an order from a police
officer.
"I stopped. There were police officers, lots of them."
They asked him where he was going and he told them but instead
of letting him go on his way, the officers pushed him into their
vehicle and accused him of being an armed robber.
"I didn't understand what they meant because I was not carrying any
weapon on me, just the money I was going to use to buy suya. They took us, myself and one other guy to SARS [Special
Anti-Robbery Squad] at Ikeja, where they kept me under a tree. Later, they came and took me to the 'theatre'. There, there
were two drums filled with sand. I was tied like a goat, two of my hands
at my back; they crossed an iron rod at my back, and then hanged me" He said he hung in that position for One hour, 20 minutes.
"They tried to force me to admit I was an armed robber - they even
shot me in the leg. I have never robbed anyone in my life. I was just a young man
struggling to save money to get admission into a higher institution to
further my education."
Effiong who had a dream of becoming a mass communicator had his hope
dashed because an influential politician Delta state, Alfred Rewane, had
been assassinated that morning by unknown gunmen at his residence in
Ikeja GRA, a few hundred metres
from Effiong's home.
Effiong was in the wrong place at the wrong time
"They held me for days. There was no phone at that time and there was
no way for me to get in touch with my family. It was my wife who
learned about it. I think the people who saw me
when I was taken away told her. Then she travelled home to inform my
mother. They wanted me to copy a statement they had written to say that I
am
an armed robber and that I conspired with the others in the murder of
Rewane. I refused. They beat me till my face was covered with blood
which was pouring
from my left ear. I didn't want to die, so I recopied the statement in
my own handwriting. The statement is what they used in implicating us.
As I was recopying the statement, the only thing on my mind was that
I didn't do anything and that my God will let everyone know the truth.
It was later that one of the policemen came to tell us that he was
sorry, that it was an order from above. Later, they charged eight of us
with the murder of the man. I don't
know the man, never heard of him. Those that I was charged with murder
with, I had never seen any of them in my life."he said.
After being tortured and forced to admit guilt, seven of the men were
arraigned before a high court, and sent to Kirikiri prison to await
trial. But when the men arrived at the prison, prison officials insisted
that the police take them to hospital to have their wounds treated.
Instead, they took them to a police station - where four of the men
subsequently died, reportedly due to the injuries sustained while being
tortured by the police.
"The torture and suffering were too much," Effiong reflects.
Rewane's killing was later linked to the military junta of Nigeria's
then dictator, the late Sani Abacha. But Effiong and two other men -
Elvis Irenuma and Lucky Igbinovia, who had both worked for Rewane -
continued to languish in prison.
Then, after 15 years, more than 200 adjournments and the
prosecution's inability to produce any evidence linking the suspects to
the crime, the trial judge discharged the case and acquitted the
suspects, upholding a 'no case submission' made by the defence counsel.
"It appears to me that all the police did was to visit the venue of
the incident and arrest the workers," the judge declared in her
judgement.
So it was that, 15 years after they were arrested, three of the seven
arraigned men - Effiong Elemi-Edu, Lucky Igbinovia and Elvis Irenuma -
walked out of prison.
But gone was the fit 25-year-old who was picked up that night. In his
place was a balding 40-year-old man who walks with a limp, a constant
reminder of the torture he endured.
"I spoke with Lucky recently, he's in Switzerland now," Effiong says.
"I don't know what he is doing there. We speak but not regularly. [And]
I saw Elvis in June this year. I am supposed to call him, only I
don't have enough units in my phone."
As for Effiong, things are not going according to plan.
"I've been facing a lot of challenges, accommodation-wise,
money-wise. I need to get my own place. Right now I'm
squatting with my brother and his wife in a one-room apartment. That's
why I'm praying to God to help me get a place of my own. "When we were over there [in prison] ... at times these churches
[would] ... come over to visit. Immediately [when] you ... come out and
say you want to go to church and give a testimony, they will look at you
and say 'Where is this guy going?' Once, somebody came out [and] they
accommodated him. [But] ... the guy packed everything away [stole from
them]. So they [the churches] stopped helping other people."
Early on in his imprisonment, his wife would visit him. But the
visits stopped without warning, and when Effiong was released, he heard
that she had remarried. He had no idea where to begin looking for her.
Two years later, Effiong also remarried. His new wife, Juliet, lives in Cross River, where Effiong is originally from.
"My daughter is one year and four months now. I'm yet to set my eyes
on [her]. Her name is Rose. They sent her picture to me. [But] I haven't
travelled home to Cross River since 2013 because financially I'm not
okay. I'm so down. If I see money now, I will travel home today, today,
today. I can't tell you a lie, life has not been easy. What will I do?
It's
only by the special grace of God that one is surviving and living.
Things are really so tough in the sense that I just leave everything to
God. These days I watch football. Then listen to gospel songs. If I'm
alone, I just go through my Bible. They wasted my time. They wasted the
talent that God gave to me. At times it pains me, when I look at the way
things are going. I
know the level my friends are at now. Is it not my classmate in
secondary school that is a commissioner in Cross River? The other one is
working in Central Bank. The other one is a lawyer in Port Harcourt.
But I don't dwell on those things. If I do, one day I'll just be
struck down by a stroke. So I have to put all those things behind me
[and] let the will of God be done."he said
Source: Aljazeera
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