 |
| Victim- Mr Jonathan Ekpoma |
Monday 12th August 2013 is a day
Mr. Jonathan Ekpoma will not forget easily. That morning he left his residence
at Ibusa delta state going to his place of work at Enugu, that was where His
woes began.
He was grabbed by some men of the State
Security Service (SSS), they presented their I.D cards’ handcuffed him and dragged
him into their vehicle. When asked his offence, he was battered with the butt
of a gun, and asked to keep quiet, He further demanded to contact His family
and the SSS officers answered Him “you have been kidnapped by the SSS, you
cannot contact anybody until our investigation is finished, you cannot tell the
SSS how they operate”. When they finally got to their office, his phones were
switched off. He was told he threatened one James Eboka over the phone, a
former colleague of his at UBA, he admitted calling the man due to some issues
they had, but not using any threat words. He wrote His statement which they
rejected. The SSS operatives tortured him, using some electrical appliances to
shock him, flogging him consistently and using various torture techniques on
Him, especially those that will not put visible marks on his body, they did not
even care if he had any health conditions. To avoid further shock and torture
He wrote what they demanded for in His statement. He was under their custody
from Monday 12th – 21st Aug 2013, before he was charged
to court.
The issue was not also easy for his wife
Mrs. Ekpoma who is a nursing mother of a 4 months old baby girl and his aged
mother. Her husband left for work that faithful day and she lost communication
with Him. She prepared for the worse, went round all hospitals, checked
manifests of transporters, waiting for calls from kidnappers, went to different
police stations, she made a formal report at one of the stations, after a week
of His disappearance she went on air (Delta Broadcasting Service) to announce
that her husband was missing, the announcement paid off as someone called, to
give her information that he was with the SSS. She went to their office to
enquire, and they denied having him in custody, that same day a lawyer and some
members of the family also went to enquire at the SSS office, they also denied
having him in custody. A formal report of a missing person was then written and
filed by the SSS and they promised to look for him at their capacity. She was
suddenly contacted 21st Aug 2013 that her husband has been taken to
court by the same SSS who denied having him in custody.
 |
| after his arrest: Mr Jonathan |
We all have to fight and address the way
security operatives keep oppressing the Nigerian people. In this era of security crisis,where
kidnapping, ritual killing and other disturbing things are rampant, a family man was kidnapped and kept unlawfully because he called
someone by SSS officers over a week, even Boka Haram suspects are given access
to their families, doctor and lawyers. The issue of battering and forcing
suspects to write statements under duress has to stop. The Era of having a
friend in any of the security outfits, and using them to carryout personal
vendetta should be discouraged. To show they carried out a biased investigation
the complainant was not in court.
That week, the Ekpoma family faced trauma,
so many families are going through this, He came across so many people under
SSS custody that their families don’t know their where about, some have been
there for months, if they die there, they erase any trace of the person to
them, because nobody even know they are there in the first place.
Is this how
they protect Nigerians?
I urge Nigerians to
petition the SSS for their missing persons.
1 Comments
