College student tortured to confess being cultist, demands justice
Joy Anyim
For the youth in Onitsha, Anambra State, these are horrible times. This is owing to alleged illegal arrest by policemen, who torture and force them to confess to being cultists. Several youths have fallen victim but those who could afford it are set free after huge sums of money are extorted from them or their relatives while those who can’t are left to rot in jail or charged to court for spurious offences.
Ezeama Promise, a freshman at the Nwafor Orizu College of Education, Nsugbe, Anambra East Local Government Area, Anambra State, is one of the latest victims.
Although the young man had heard tales of arbitrary arrests and brutality by the police, little did he know that someday soon, he would be a victim of such.
His ordeal started on February 2, 2020, when he attended an orientation programme for freshmen, reportedly organised by the school.
The youngster was on his way back to his off-campus hostel when policemen attached to the Special Anti-Cultism Squad (SPAC), Inland Town, Onitsha Annex Office, Anambra State Police Command, accosted him.
Although Promise identified himself as a student, telling them where he was coming from, the policemen, who had their motives, forcefully whisked him into a waiting van.
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The 25-year-old man said: “That Saturday, two of my fellow students and I, alongside some other hostel mates were on our way back to our lodge after an orientation programme organised by the college for its year one students, of which we were part. We were close to the entrance gate of our hostel at Abata Nsugbe – a stone’s throw from Ugoo Hotel and Suite, where the Orientation took place when we saw a flash of light. I assumed that the light came from members of the street vigilante group. Immediately, I put on my phone torchlight and directed it on my face so that I could be identified.
“When the people who flashed the light approached us, it turned out that they were officers of the Special Anti-Cultism Squad (SPACS) of the Inland Town, Onitsha Annex Office dressed in Polo shirts with the inscription ‘SPACS’.
They asked us who among us is Uche?’ We told them none of us was and told them our names. Some of the officers were in a waiting van, and they asked their colleagues who had accosted us: ‘Confirmed?’ to which the officers replied ‘Confirmed!’
“We tried to explain to the policemen where we were coming from, but the policemen told us that they knew where we were coming from because we were the ones they were waiting for. The policemen put us in handcuffs and I asked if I could make a call, whereupon the officers immediately confiscated my phones.”
In what seemed like a movie scene, he ended up spending two horrifying nights in a police cell. He was also tortured and forced to confess being a member of a cult group.
Telling his bitter experience in the hands of SPAC operatives, the freshman revealed how policemen in the unit, allegedly hunt for young persons, labelling them cultists.
While those who could afford to pay their way to freedom were reportedly granted bail, others who were financially handicapped were either charged to court for a crime they did not commit and allowed to rot in jail.
“I asked them if I could call the caretaker of my hostel; they took my phone and dialed my caretaker’s number I saved as Chidubem and asked him if he could identify me and my friends. The caretaker confirmed that we are students and residents of the lodge. The officers, however, told the caretaker to come the next morning to Inland Town Police Station, Onitsha, and take us if we are not found guilty.
“As I entered the police van, I saw three other young men, also in handcuffs. The policemen drove us around to other areas of Abata Nsugbe and later parked at a place, leaving us in the van with some policemen while others went about hunting for other young people to arrest. A few minutes later, the policemen who had gone hunting, came back with a man, identified as Mr. Israel. He joined us in the van and narrated how the policemen came to his house to arrest him for an offence he was yet to know of.
“We were seven in number arrested that night, and we were driven to Inland Town Police Station, Onitsha, at some minutes to 3 am; and the policemen started to interrogate us. They ordered us to put off our dresses and we were thrown into the cell. The cells were filled with other young people similarly arrested from Nkpor and environs, who said they were also simply picked up and falsely labeled cultists.
“At about 9 am the next day, the operatives brought us out and started torturing us. In my case, they repeatedly asked me what cult group I belonged to, and I insistently denied belonging to any cult group. The policemen cuffed my hands and my legs together at my back, bending me backward, with my chest protruding, and then hung me on a ceiling hook suspending me like a barbecue, which caused me severe pain and suffering.
“While I hung in that very unbearably and painful position, my interrogators used the side of a long cutlass to hit me repeatedly, inflicting injuries all over my body. I could no longer bear the pain and had to choose from the list of cult groups presented to me by my torturers because they insisted I must choose the one I belonged to; I ‘confessed’ that I belonged to the Buccaneers.”
He said that upon his ‘false confession’, the commander of the Squad ordered his men to untie and bring him down, which they did, leaving him only in handcuff and took him to a room to sit and finish his statement.
Even though he could read and write, Ezeama said the policemen did not give him the liberty of writing his own statement. He claimed the policemen fabricated all they wrote in the statement sheet.
He continued: “They asked me who initiated me into the cult and I told them I was not a cultist, and that earned me a ‘thunderous slap’. I was forced to mention my caretaker, who was the only person that came to my mind at that moment even though I knew that my caretaker is clean. They asked me where I was initiated and I told them at my lodge. They asked me when, and I said September 2019, when I newly came to the school. One of the SPACS operatives wrote the statement; I was not allowed to write my statement. They framed me and if you check, compare the handwriting the statement was written in and my handwriting, you will discover that they are not the same.”
Chidubem, who later came for his tenant’s release as promised was also arrested.
“When the caretaker came to see me and possibly take me on bail, the commander called him and told him that “the show don cast” and immediately, ordered his men to torture him as well. The policemen asked the caretaker why he initiated me into the cult and this terribly shocked the caretaker because he’s innocent. They told the caretaker many other terrible things they falsely claimed that I said about him.
“When Chidubem asked if that was what I told the policemen, I cried, telling him I said so because of the pains and fear that I might die if I didn’t accept all that the policemen were asking me to confess to under intense torture. I stated again that he was not a cultist. The policemen claimed I was lying against them, insisting that I made all the confessions voluntarily without any one of them touching me. They ordered Chidubem to lie down and they started flogging him ‘mercilessly’ with machetes until the commander ordered them again to take us back into the cell,” he said.
The police were quick to release Chidubem after the landlady sent some persons to the police formation to secure his release with N100,000.
The policemen later allowed Promise access to his phones with which he immediately made a post on his WhatsApp status about his current situation and location and also posted in his village WhatsApp group, and some other groups he belonged to. He also called some of his family members to inform them of his ordeal and whereabouts.
Promise’s family was asked to pay N200,000 to secure his release, but for the fate that made their path to cross with that of human rights lawyer, Justus Ijeoma.
Narrating further, Promise said: “My sister came on the evening of the next day, but the policemen asked her to go and come back the next day, which she did and they told her that I had confessed being a ‘cultist’. She vehemently disputed this but they told her not to vouch for me. The officers demanded the sum of N200,000 to release me, but my sister pleaded and they came down to N100,000 as the least they would accept to release me.
“It was in the process of looking for who to borrow money from to give to the policemen to free me that my sister met a friend, who directed her to a human rights lawyer based in Onitsha, Justus Ijeoma, who told her not to pay any dime to the police for bail and then undertook to step in to secure my freedom.
“When the policemen discovered my sister was not playing along, and my lawyer called them, inquiring about the case from both the Investigating Police Officer and the Commander, they decided to charge me to court on February 4, 2020, without informing my lawyer. Fortunately, before our case was called up, my lawyer arrived in court and at his instance, the Magistrate first called the parties to interview them in chambers and after the interview, one of the policemen again told me that if I knew that a good lawyer would appear for me, he would have shot me on the leg and used that as evidence.
Although Promise has been granted bail, he is demanding for justice, and that the officers involved in his torture and unlawful arrest, be brought to face the rot of the law.
He lamented that young men have become endangered in Anambra State, as the police cell where he spent nights was a testimony to that fact.
“Many young men were in the cell where I slept. Most of them told me they were arrested for an offence they did not commit and were not even allowed to contact any relative since their arrest. All I want is for the policemen responsible for my ordeal to be disciplined. They should not be sacked, because they would pose a bigger problem for society if sacked. They should be cautioned and then I want the police to compensate me for the damages they caused me.”
Barrister Ijeoma had also alerted the Police Stakeholders Partnership Forum (PSPF), a group of diverse stakeholders in Anambra State, inaugurated by Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) in collaboration with the Anambra State Police Command under CP John Abang with support from Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI).
The group, which monitors police compliance with the Anambra State Administration of Criminal Justice Law 2010 and acts as a mechanism for holding police personnel in the state account for rights violations, had written to the state commissioner of police on the matter.
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In a soft copy of the letter, dated February 10, 2020, which was obtained by the correspondent, PSPF said: “Sir, PSPF is shocked by this chilling narrative that evokes horror. PSPF is aware that the CP Anambra State Command, Mr. John Abang, has often expressed zero tolerance for corruption and human rights violations by police officers in the state and has seized every opportunity to caution and admonish officers under the command to always conduct themselves professionally, shun corruption and respect the rights of citizens.
“The CP recently commissioned a statement taking a room at SARS Awkuzu, as one of the measures to monitor and check torture of suspects in custody during interrogation by police officers. The alleged actions of the Commander of Anti-Cultism Squad and his men, if found to be true, would be at variance with the CP’s stance on police conduct; the alleged conduct generally undermine police discipline and professional code of conduct; they bring the police into utter disrepute, create public resentment and deepen negative public perception, trust, and cooperation.
“ PSPF respectfully calls on the CP Anambra to order a prompt, impartial and exhaustive investigation with a view to ascertaining what happened and ensuring that the accused police officers are appropriately disciplined if found culpable.”
Contacted for comments, the Anambra State Police Public Relations Officer, Haruna Mohammed, said the State Commissioner of Police has ordered a comprehensive investigation into the matter.
According to Mohammed: “The case is in court and it is up to the court to decide. They were five in number and they confessed to being cultists. A petition has been written to the Commissioner of Police on this, and he has ordered an investigation. So, let the court decide if they were made to make statement under duress. The investigation
