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From Uchenna Inya, Abakaliki
“We need help in all ramifications and I will only be happy to be called Barrister’s wife again when we return to the condition we were before this pathetic situation we are now. I will like to go back to bearing ‘Barrister’s wife’ again when things improve. I want to go back to that name. It gave me prestige. It gave me honour. It gave me joy and it gave me protection.” Those were the words of Mrs. Juliet Pius Awoke, wife of Pius Awoke, the Ebonyi-born legal practitioner who was incarcerated by the Department of State Security Services (DSS) for three years for an offence he was not aware of.
Mrs. Awoke was living big like other wives whose husbands are well to do in life. The family was living in a good home and environment, the children attended good schools and had three square meals in a day. Their daily needs were supplied them and they were looking very healthy. But just by a stroke of fate, there was change of fortune for the Awokes. And today, they are living in penury with some of the children looking malnourished. Following their ejection from their beautiful apartment, they now make do with a dingy hut built for goats and chickens while their mother sells fufu for their survival.
It was a clear case of from grace to grass for the Awokes following the arrest of their breadwinner on his way back from Abuja after attending the trial of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu in July 2021. He was kept in the DSS custody in Kogi, Abuja and Niger State for three years before his release was secured on June 21, 2024. The man now looks dehumanized and malnourished. He is currently struggling to regain his health and psychological state as a result of the detention.
Mrs. Awoke who decried the inhuman treated meted to her husband by the Nigerian State, told Saturday Sun that life was so unbearable for her and her five children, especially after they were sent packing by the landlord of where they were living before the arrest and detention of her spouse.
According to her, she had to beg a woman to spare the family a hut where she kept goats and chickens for them to move in and the woman did not hesitate to release it to them.
The Psychology graduate of Ebonyi State University (EBSU) said the garri business and other petty businesses she was into before her husband was arrested, crashed and she could not cater for the children anymore when they packed into the hut.
She further disclosed that when things became tougher for the family, she pulled all her five children from the school they were attending and enrolled them in a very low school standard school.
“Being without my husband for three years is a long and very pathetic story. I can’t finish the story. I and my five children passed through a lot; we suffered a lot.
“On July 26, 2021, my husband told me that he will be travelling to Abuja to witness Nnamdi Kanu’s case and he travelled to Abuja that day. Around 4pm that day, we called him and he picked. Then after a while, we called the number again and the phone was ringing but nobody picked.
“I became stranded and worried. I was panicking. I started making efforts to know his whereabouts. After two, three days, I met his brother first. The brother told me that those people that went to witness Nnamdi Kanu’s case, that they detained them, that DSS people got them at Lokoja and took all of them back to Abuja. After some days, I saw a magazine and my husband’s name was there and other names I didn’t know. I became more worried about my husband’s whereabouts.
“Six months after, the landlord of where we were living threw our things out of the house because of rent. The thing was too heavy on me. I cried and cried. After crying, I summoned courage knowing that crying cannot solve my problem. Then, I picked up some of my little things and called his brother who came and picked some of his office items because similar things happened to his office too and it was at the same time and that was on June 1, 2022.
“Then, I met one old woman and begged her to please give me one old room. It was the house of goat and chicken as you can see. I pleaded with the woman to offer that house for me to live so that I don’t relocate my children to the village. The woman accepted and gave me the house. Then, I bought some things and washed the place. I used tarpaulin and made ceiling for the house and we packed into the dingy room.
“I was selling garri and doing other petty businesses in front of that house that we were ejected from. As I was doing that business, the whole thing was going doing, the business was closing seriously. I couldn’t feed my children anymore; I couldn’t do anything. I knelt down one day and prayed to God-please make a way for me, show me another thing to be doing so that I and my children will not die out of hunger. Then, God just told me to start this business you see me doing now. “I went to market, there was no garri for me to buy, garri was very scarce. Then I bought fufu. This was how I started selling fufu. I bought fufu N2,500 and came back home to prepare it and sell. After preparing it to sell, people rushed me on the road to the market and bought the whole thing. I came back with joy and thanked God and that was how I started full fufu business.
“Since then, I have been using this fufu business to sustain my family, to pay my children’s school fees and do everything that requires money. I couldn’t afford my children’s school fees that time we were ejected from our house by the landlord. I pulled them out of the school and put them in very affordable school that they attend now,” she stated.
The woman said the day her husband returned was like a dream to her. Decrying the husband’s present condition, she said: “The day my husband returned, I was pounding this fufu of a thing in front of this hut we are living now when somebody was shouting praise God, praise God. I immediately saw a crowd. I saw lawyers in Abakaliki. My house was surrounded by lawyers and I saw my husband very skinny and broke down in tears. I started crying and hugged him.”
She called for help from all quarters to enable them return to their normal condition. The woman stated that the fufu business has been very stressful for her.
She lamented that she has made effort to get job after her graduation in 2014 but to no avail.
“I want God to please touch the heart of government to help us because we are now helpless. You can see where we are living now which is not habitable for a human being. People have been calling me Barrister’s wife, I don’t want to bear that name now. They should keep that name aside for now because we need serious help. “We need help in all ramifications and I will only be happy to be called Barrister’s wife again when we return to the condition we were before this pathetic situation we are now. I will like to go back to Barrister’s wife when things improve, I want to go back to that name. It gives me prestige. It gives me honour. It gives me joy and it gives me protection. People, especially my husband’s colleagues have done a lot for us in this trying moment. But we need more help.
“Honestly, I don’t need this business again, it’s too stressful. You can see me now. I have almost the same body structure with my husband. I need something else to be doing. I need a job. I read Psychology. I graduated from Ebonyi State University in 2014 and I have tried a lot to get a job, but all my efforts have not yielded any result. I need employment,” she lamented. Owner of the compound where the family currently resides, Mrs, Ngozi Akiyi said she was touched when she heard that the lawyer was in detention after he went to Abuja for a function, which made her to give the house to his wife and children. She disclosed that that she did not like to give them such a place to live because of its deplorable nature but because she had no empty rooms in her large compound, she had to release that to the troubled family.
Akiyi described Awoke and wife as a good couple, adding that the lawyer had been good to people, especially the needy, which was why she gave his family the space when he was in detention.
“When I heard that the lawyer went to work in Abuja and couldn’t come back and the man is a good person who helped people a lot, I was touched and didn’t waste time to release one of the rooms to his family. That room was actually meant for animals because every other room in my compound was occupied by tenants and there were no rooms available.
“The wife who is my friend also like her husband came to me and begged me to give her where she would live with her children. I told her that this room is leaking, this room is not good. She was begging me with a woman that used to assist her in her fufu business. I had no option than to release the room to her. Like I said, the husband is someone that helped people a lot.
“The woman has no problem just like the husband. I have known her for long, we are like sisters. I am happy that her husband has returned. I went to our church and cried to our congregation that time the man was arrested by the DSS. , I told them that this man is a good person and he went for Nnamdi Kanu’s case in Abuja and didn’t return. Our priest shouted and immediately visited the wife and consoled her.
“When the man later came back, I reported back to our priest who was full of joy and prayed for the man and his wife. I don’t want them to pack out of my yard because they are too good, they are good people. I will miss them if they pack out but because of their status, especially the man, they may go out now that the man has returned. They are so humble, quiet and peaceful. Peace is very nice and we have been cooperating peacefully in this yard,” Akiyi said.
Meanwhile, the Abakaliki branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), has vowed to challenge the three-year detention of Awoke by the DSS. The association described his incarceration as man’s inhumanity to man, insisting that it must seek redress. Chairman of the association in the capital city, Edeh Samuel Edeh, told Saturday Sun they cannot accept what was meted out to their member. He described Awoke as a consummate lawyer which, according to him, was why everybody is not happy the way he was treated by the DSS.
“The issue here is that we feel very bad. The association condemns the particular act of wickedness, man’s inhumanity to man. Imagine a situation where a law enforcement agency that is supposed to be of protection to the masses especially to our members is now the problem of the association.
“Take for instance, this man went for a legitimate duty as a lawyer. He went to court to represent a client. As he was returning from Abuja, he was arrested by DSS. Now, the issue here is, since when has it been unlawful that a lawyer should represent a client? If a member of DSS is alleged to have committed one offence or the other, won’t he have the right to brief a lawyer to represent him?
“So, the way our member, Pius Awoke was humiliated, dehumanized is something too gory, too bad, unacceptable and on behalf of NBA Abakaliki branch, we condemn such. Even the national body of NBA is also feeling very bad. The President and the entire body, we have been discussing and I know several efforts that were made and through the efforts of the National President, Pius Awoke has been released. “If you look at his family, you will shed tears. If you look at the wife and the entire family, they have gone through untold hardship during these three years Pius Awoke was in the DSS cells as if Pius had died. You will know that what DSS has done is such a thing that needs not only condemnation, but there must be a punitive measure. They have to pay. They will pay for it.”
Edeh disclosed that the NBA was still reviewing the situation and would act accordingly when Awoke would have fully recuperated.
