Detained in prison cells for 3 years without knowing their crime, victims narrate nightmarish experiences in Suleja, Keffi, Kuje correctional centres

By Abubakar Yakubu, Abuja

Christmas celebrations last December appeared to have begun early for Didiugwu Emmanuel, Ogbu Aachukwu, Okechukwu Nwodo, Chidiebere Egbo, Friday Ede, Juel Igwurube, Onyekachi Nnamani, Origbo Kenneth, Oyebuchi Asadu and Chidebere Nwafor, as they never in their wildest dreams believed they would be released from prison and had conditioned their fate to dying there.

Lateef Fagbemi SAN, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice

 

 

Three of them were detained at the New Correctional Centre at Keffi; two at the Old Correctional Centre, Keffi; two at Suleija Correctional Centre and three at the Kuje Correctional Centre. All the suspects had been detained for three years without actually knowing the crime they committed.

The suspects complained of bad feeding and medical arrangements at the correctional centres while those detained at the New Keffi Correctional Centre said it is difficult to get drinking water in the place and they were isolated from other inmates as well as chained in their cells for six months without seeing the sun until a lawyer appeared to find out about their welfare and the restrictions were removed.

They described Old Keffi Correctional Centre as the best due to their regular feeding arrangements, the policy for inmates to learn a trade and the freedom given to inmates to relate among themselves.

According to them, it was like a miracle when on December 12, 2024, each of them heard their names being called out by warders at the various correctional centres they were detained in for the past several years and they were ordered to pack all their belongings from their cell and come out to the chief warders’ office. That was where the news of freedom was broken to them.

Among the 10, only Asadu and Nwafor appeared luckier as  Justice Ngozika C.N. Nwabulu of the FCT High Court declared their detention illegal and awarded each of them N10 million compensation for the breaches of their fundamental human rights. For the other eight, Justice Jude O. Onwuegbuzie only ordered, in May 2024, that they be immediately charged to court or released forthwith for being unconstitutionally and illegally incarcerated since January 2021 at Keffi Correctional facility.

Emmanuel, who is a rice farmer at Nwgo community in Enugu State,said on August 4, 2021, he was at his farm around 8am when he heard sporadic gunshots and ran for safety like others.

“I saw some armed soldiers and policemen and ran towards them for help. But I was arrested and taken to the Police Command in Enugu State, where they later transferred me to the state’s anti-kidnapping unit,” he said.

According to him, at the unit, he was mercilessly tortured, beaten with a cutlass as well as received electric shocks from a device in order to force him to confess to being part of a terrorist group whose members killed a policeman.

Emmanuel said he denied all the allegations and was surprised that the policemen were the ones writing his statement as well as videoing, adding that one of them even threatened to shoot him dead if he did not abide by the framed charge.

“The policemen later removed the leg chain from my leg and pushed me with other suspects into a cell, where we stayed for one month and three days, mostly without food and water,” he lamented.

He said his family later discovered where he was and sent his wife with a reverend father to the police station. But he recalled that they were denied access to him

“On September 16, 2021, they took me along with other suspects to a Magistrate Court in Enugu and we were remanded at Enugu Correctional Centre.

The prison officials on February 22, 2023, called upon us to gather our belongings and they took us to the airport, where we were flown to Abuja under tight security and later taken to Suleja Correctional Centre, where I spent seven months and was transferred to the centre at Kuje,” he narrated.

He criticized the feeding situation at Suleja Correctional Centre, noting that food given to inmates were terrible and had sand inside them.

“If you give such food to a dog, it will bite you,” he said.

Emmanuel alleged that first time inmates at the Kuje centre were told to pay N200,000 if they wanted to enjoy the comfort of a mattress throughout their stay in the place or sleep on the bare floor.

He also complained of the food served to inmates and said the clinic lacked medicines apart from pain relievers and vitamin c tablets.

“If your illness is very serious, you have to provide money to help yourself or you will just die there,” he disclosed.

He named those who died while he was incarcerated at Kuje as 70 year-old Major-General Jerry Newman, Abass, Ibrahim and Sunny.

Another freed suspect, Chibueze, who doubles as a fashion designer and driver, said he was transporting perishable goods from Nsukka to Abuja, along with some others when armed herdsmen attacked their vehicle and he escaped with a bullet wound.

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“We started running for our dear lives and I was assisted by another driver to a nearby hospital but refused treatment and I managed myself to a hospital in my hometown at Ibagwani in Enugu State, where the doctor reported my case to the community’s security network, who abducted me and took me to the police station in the area.

“I was transferred to various police stations in the state for two months and two weeks without food, water or treatment of the wound I sustained.

“Anytime human rights officials or members of the Red Cross are visiting the station where I was kept, the police officers would hide us in an underground cell at SARS Block Estate in the state,” he lamented.

He said three inmates died in his presence at the police cell, adding that after remaining with them for months, they covered his face with a black cloth one day, beat him to stupor before taking him to court where he was remanded at Enugu Correctional Centre and later Suleja as well as Kuje centres.

“In the prisons, we were treated like slaves and I witnessed some inmates die as a result of hunger.

“I also took ill due to lack of food and medications. The illness that almost cost me my life was the tuberculosis I contacted at Suleja Correctional Centre, when they kept me in the same cell with somebody coughing seriously. I was taken to the clinic at the centre and I thank God that the drugs were asked to be given to us freely as directed by the federal government,” he stressed.

He thanked the various church groups who visited the correctional centres where he was detained, adding that he sees his freedom as a dream.

Another freed suspect, Onyekachi, a businessman said he received a call asking him to come and pick up a parcel sent to him.

“I went to the described place and was arrested by policemen from the Inspector-General of Police Tactical Response Team (TRT). They beat me to stupor and bundled me to their station, where the torture continued and this has affected my ears.

“From there, they transferred me to SARS where I remained handcuffed for over two months and this was removed during my arraignment in court,” he disclosed.

He said in April 2022, the court remanded him at Enugu Correctional Centre, where he was later transferred to Abuja to be detained until his release on December 12, 2024.

Juel, another freed suspect, said on December 11, 2021 at about 9 pm, he received a phone call from his sister, who told him his mother was seriously sick.

“I left my apartment to see my mother when some policemen arrested me on the way and accused me of being among the group that burnt a motorcycle.

“I was taken to Nkem Police Station in Enugu and kept in cell for three days, before they brought someone to me and labelled him as my collaborator.

“After bringing the man to see me, we spent another five days in the cell and they later took me to Nbolo Police Station for further detention but the officers on duty refused to accept me because of the injuries the policemen inflicted on my body,” he stated.

He said the officers at the State Criminal Investigation Department also refused to accept him but after a few days he was taken back and accepted.

“I still remember the case of one Remembrance Obaso who was locked up in cell with me and was appealing to the policemen to take him to a hospital, but they refused until he died,” he noted.

He disclosed further that he was taken to a Magistrate Court at Enugu on January 2022 and remanded at Enugu Correctional Centre, where he was later transferred to Abuja and detained at Kuje Correctional Centre.

“At Kuje centre, the medical care was bad compared to Enugu centre. I fell sick and was taken to the centre’s clinic, where I had to part with N25,000 for drugs and was shocked to see what was given to me,” he said.

Others released suspects had almost similar experiences like those narrated and called for thorough investigations by the federal government into the issue of selling mattresses at Kuje Correctional Centre and the conditions of the clinics at Keffi, Suleja and Kuje centres.

Commenting on the suspects’ ordeal, their lawyer, Nnaemeka Ejiofor said after Justice Onwuegbuzie ordered the release of eight of the suspects in May 2024, he was surprised that the concerned authorities did not obey the order. He said he wrote to the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) to intimate him of the case as well as attaching the court’s judgment.

He said the AGF’s office did not respond to his letter, which prompted him to approach the court again so that the judgment could be enforced.

“The judge issued a warrant of release for the eight suspects and it was sent to the Controller-General in charge of the Correctional Centre, who immediately effected the order,” he disclosed.

The lawyer stressed further that Justice Nwabulu, while freeing the other two suspects, also issued a warrant of release for their immediate release to the controller-general and all the 10 suspects were released on December 12.