Man’s inhumanity to man

From Uchenna Inya, Abakaliki

A young man from Ebonyi State, Obinna Usulor, literally came back from the land of the dead on August 13, 2024, as he was freed from the correctional centre.

 

The 24-year-old commercial cyclist, commonly called Okada rider, would have died in the correctional centre where he was detained for over a year after being in police custody for many months before his arraignment. A magistrate remanded him at the Onitsha correctional service centre.

The young man, from Effium, in Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, was residing in Onitsha, Anambra State, having left his state of origin for greener pastures in the commercial city, but ended up as an Okada operator.

Usulor’s offence was that he operated his Okada on one of the sit-at-home days proclaimed by pro-Biafra agitators in the South East. The Anambra State Vigilante Group arrested him and handed to the police for prosecution.

On that fateful day in September 2021, he was carrying passengers from Onitsha to Nsugbe when the vigilance group in the area arrested him. They took him to their office, where he was reportedly tortured. After they handed him to the police, he hoped that he would be released but the reverse was the case. The police kept him in custody for eight months before he was arraigned.

Daily Sun was told that the police allegedly demanded N15,000 to free him but the young man was unable to provide the money. He had no lawyer and that was how he landed in the Onitsha correctional centre. 

Usulor was already rotting away in prison custody before one Ebonyi State-based humanist, Polycarp Obinna Alegu, got wind of the case and pushed for his release.   

It was gathered that Usulor’s hope of freedom took a leap the day one of the prison officials called him aside and asked him why he was there. He narrated everything to the officer, who promised to help him get someone to facilitate his release.

He narrated his ordeal thus: “I travelled to Onitsha, Anambra State, and started riding commercial motorcycle. I carried two persons one day from a motor park and that day was sit-at-home. I carried them to Nsugbe, where they were going to.

“After dropping my passengers in Nsugbe, I carried two other passengers and started returning to Onitsha. Vigilance members accosted me and arrested me. The people I was carrying on the motorcycle escaped after pushing me inside the gutter because they were telling me to turn back on sighting the vigilante members and I refused. So, it was the vigilantce members that dragged me out of the gutter and arrested me thereafter.

“They bundled me inside the boot of their vehicle with my motorcycle and carried me to their office. When they got to their office, they started torturing me. They called policemen from Awkuzu, known as SARS. They came and carried me to their own office. I was in police custody for nine months without being arraigned. After nine months, I was arraigned and remanded in police custody, Awkuzu, by the court.

“After 30 days, I was taken to court by the Awkuzu policemen and asked to contact any of my relatives. Before we got to the court, the policemen told me to call any of my relatives to bring N15,000 for them to release me and I told them I didn’t have contact of my relatives off head since my phone was confiscated during my arrest. They carried me and dumped me in Onitsha prison.

“I was there in the prison until one of the prison officials called me and asked me why I was in prison and I explained everything to him. He asked me to call any of my people, I told him that my phone was confiscated and I don’t have phone numbers of my relatives in my head. He said, okay, he would contact someone to look into my case. After this, I remained in the prison until God sent Polycarp Obinna Alegu, who helped to secure my freedom.

“While in police cell and prison, I was not given food. One of my brothers was bringing food for me for three months. At a time, he stopped because he was told that I was no more in prison, whereas I was there dying.

“There was a day I collapsed in the cell and almost died. I was brought out of the cell and poured cold water until I regained consciousness. They took me out of that cell and put me in another cell. It was from that cell they transferred me to that I was released through the intervention of Polycarp Obinna Alegu, who engaged two lawyers for my matter. As I was in detention, my mother was worried, she was so worried that she kept thinking about me and crying all the time. And she went blind. She is so terribly sick that she no longer breathes properly.”

Alegu ,who secured Usulor’s release, gave the credit to two young and vibrant lawyers. According to him, they volunteered to assist following a post he made on his social media handle about the young man.

He disclosed that it was his military officer friend who found Usulor in the correctional service facility and quickly called his attention to it. This prompted him to appeal for assistance on Facebook, to ensure that he was released.

He said, on reading his Facebook post, the two Ebonyi lawyers, Alioka Uchenna and Moses Ugboh, reached him to pursue Usulor’s case, free of charge. Thereafter, they accompanied him to Anambra to secure his release on August 5, when the court granted him bail.

“I posted about a 24-year-old young man from Ebonyi State who had been languishing in Onitsha prison for two and half years without a helper. The young man was innocent. He was arrested on the road while riding his Okada by the vigilance group and later handed over to Awkuzu SARS and finally dumped in prison, after he was remanded by a magistrate’s court.

“My friend, who is a military officer, found the boy in prison a week earlier and quickly called my attention to his matter.

“You needed to have seen these two lawyers confidently speaking in court, quoting sections of the Constitution and criminal laws/acts, stating that the boy be discharged immediately, having been detained for so long without trial. The judge nodded her head in affirmation and quickly granted the boy freedom and struck out the case.

“Late hour and the papers that needed to be signed before proceeding to the prison for his release nearly affected his freedom but I persevered. I later visited the prison and saw the boy for the first time and bought food for him. A very handsome boy at that! You need to see how he fell on the ground with tears of joy, appreciating me after telling him that he was to be released.

“These two sound lawyers deserve to be crowned. Since I brought this ugly news to the public domain, they have been reaching me on phone on how to go about the matter. It took much of their time.

“They did underground work to get the boy’s file. In court today, more than 40 cases were heard and our case was almost the last, but we waited patiently till we saw the end of the matter. Amazingly, they did the case without charging me a dime,” Alegu said.

He gave all the glory to God for the grace He gave him to solve problems while applauding the “legal giants for their prompt intervention.”

Alegu also paid tribute to those who showed concern about the matter especially the people that made gave financial support.

Concluding, he said: “My good friend, U.C. Ebony Black, paid for my transport fare to and fro, and my lodging. Another good friend of mine, Sean P-Philips, paid for our feeding after the court sitting. May God replenish their pockets.

“I paid for his bail in prison. They say ‘bail is free’ on media but not in practice. Therefore, I spent some money for the bail and I thank God I succeeded in bailing him.”