Posted by By PATRICK ASONYE on
A Nigerian, arrested with three Equitorial Guineans, over alleged plot to violently topple the government of Theodore Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, has sensationally revealed the "hell" he saw in detention.
A Nigerian, arrested with three Equitorial Guineans, over alleged plot to violently topple the government of Theodore Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, has sensationally revealed the "hell" he saw in detention.
Coming from two months incarceration in Lagos and Abuja, Anthony Amechi Akaeke says though he is innocent of the charges, his hunch tells him, based on the insight he gained from his interactions with the three aliens, that Mbasogo's days as president of the oil-rich Island country are numbered.
Thirty-year-old Akaeke spoke exclusively to Sunday Sun in Lagos.
The three Equitorial Guinean military officers detained along with him included Col. Ela Biban Florencio (47), retired Lt. Edu Nchama Antimo (47) and Mr. Felipe Esono Ntufumu Nzang (32). They reportedly escaped to Nigeria when the secret leaked in Malabo.
The coup plot was said to have been funded by Mark, son of former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, who was granted bail following high-level diplomatic negotiations between Equitorial Guinea and Britain.
Looking worried, Akaeke raised alarm over threat phone calls he has been inundated with since stepping out of detention few days ago. Though claiming not to be afraid of death, particularly after his detention experience, Akaeke said: "I want the whole world to know that right now, my life is in danger. There have been attempts to assassinate me because I am a witness to the case that is going on.
"I have received several anonymous phone calls warning me not to divulge the whereabouts of the people I was arrested with. But my conscience tells me to speak out before something goes wrong with me.
"This is the opportunity I have to tell the world what happened so that if anything goes wrong, people would understand why. But if I keep quiet, as they said I should, and the attempt on my life is carried out, the public would not know the details."
Arrest
Along with the three Equitorial Guinean officers, Akaeke said he was arrested effectively on April 20 by operatives of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) at a guest house in Apapa, Lagos.
"At first, I was invited to their office for questioning and later released to go. But two days later, they came back in a commando fashion. In fact, their conduct gave the impression that there was war. They whisked us away to their annex near the Shippers Council in Apapa. We were there for more than one week before being moved again to the Directorate of Intelligence Agency (DIA) at Bonny Camp."
Near fatal trip to Abuja
Barely 24 hour after arriving at Bonny Camp, Akaeke recounts "They told us again that we were wanted in Abuja. That was how we were taken away to Abuja in chains and handcuffs, through a most grueling night journey that almost ended in a fatal accident."
Funny enough, he said the security operatives detailed to take them to Abuja missed their way and headed for Auchi in the night: "I was the one they had to rely on, to show them the way and we arrived Abuja by 4am on May 1. God saved us on the way because the driver, maybe he slept off, almost ran into a broken down truck.
"In Abuja, we were interrogated by a Naval Commander. I kept telling them that I didn't know why I was being held; that if they suspect that I committed any crime against the Federal Republic of Nigeria, my trial should be public and that I should be allowed access to my family and lawyer. But they kept me incommunicado. Luckily, before we were taken away from DMI, Lagos, I managed to sneak a call to my lawyer, Festus Keyamo."
In Abuja, Akaeke said they were eventually handed over to the State Security Service (SSS) after five days of waiting: "They started their own round of interrogations."
Friendship
"My relationship with the three Equitorial Guinean military officers? A friend who knows their elder brother in London introduced them to me. He said that they were on a business trip. Actually, I am in shipping business, and since their business was related to my specialty, I guess that was why they were introduced to me in the first instance. Besides, I speak passable Spanish and fluent French. These guys don't speak English, so it became inevitable that I stayed with them in the hotel (in Lagos) to ease their communication difficulties. Initially, I wanted them to stay in my house, but they preferred a hotel, where the military guys arrested us from."
Crime
Though the quartet was not formally charged, Akaeke said they were accused of "negotiating to purchase arms from the Military Cantonment (in Lagos)."
Describing it as ridiculous, Akaeke said: "We didn't have any dealings at the Military Cantonment. They (DMI operatives) were the people who took us to Ojo Military Cantonment (Lagos), gathered some equipment, and asked us ‘Are these exactly what you are looking for?'"
Counter accusation
Curiously, Akaeke turned round to accuse his accusers of running with the hare and hunting with the hound. Said he: "I can tell you that these same security operatives were in contact with the principal financier of the coup and negotiated with him. It was when the money failed to come that they came to arrest us." He therefore smelled a rat.
Wrong business
Akaeke told Sunday Sun that at first he did not know the true details of the business he was being recruited for. When he finally realised it, he had been irreversibly immersed:
"Sincerely, I was made to understand, at the early stage, that they (foreigners) wanted to hire a boat to ferry workers from Boma in Kinshasha to Batar in Equatorial Guinea. It was not until March 20 that I discovered that their mission was different.
"By this time, the boat had been secured and it was difficult for me to make a detour although I made attempts to foil the process… They (Equitorial Guinean officers) told our SSS men that they were only interested in liberating their people from bondage, not to seize power."
According to him, since the bubble had burst, they said that they did not mind being tried in Nigeria or allowed to stay instead of being extradited to their home country.
But Akaeke expressed the fear that his foreign friends might have been extradited to Malabo.
"Few days after I was released, I called them and they told me that they were alright. But I later got a call from a sympathetic security friend who said that my friends had been moved out."
Detention experience
Akaeke said his experience in detention was harrowing: "It was like the Lion's den. They started by asking me in a harsh manner, ‘Who were the persons behind the coup?' I told them that I didn't think a coup had actually been executed. I said at best, there was a plot that wasn't even against the Nigerian government but the government of Equitorial Guinea."
He described his experience as a difficult phase of his life, having been chained and handcuffed round the clock: "I was psychologically downcast because I was not allowed any visits nor did they allow me access to my lawyer."
Nonetheless, he said the operatives kept assuring him that his relations were aware of where he was being detained.
At a stage, he further recalled, "I took ill and they were loading me with antibiotics."
Even when the coup detainees resolved to embark on hunger strike, the operatives, he said, merely had a good laugh, saying that "When the real hunger pangs come, nobody would beg us to ask for food."
Anonymous phone calls
Surprisingly, Akaeke said he fears more now for his life than when he was in detention: "Since I came out, I have been receiving several anonymous phone calls. The callers say I shouldn't ever disclose what I know about the suspected coup plotters from Equitorial Guinea."
Thatcher in the picture
When the story of the coup plot blew open late last year, Mark Thatcher was mentioned as a financier.
Was Akaeke aware of this? His response: " I only know that we had a man in our camp (I won't mention his name) who was also in Mr. Thatcher's camp."
President Mbasogo and Nigerian residents
At the mention of Mbasogo, Akaeke's countenance changed: "He is a dictator. He doesn't like to see Nigerians, hundreds of them, in his country. In fact, his days as president are numbered. If our government makes the mistake of handing those men (the three officers) to Mbasogo, I particularly fear that the lives of Nigerians in that country will be in danger. I say so because the people don't like Mbasogo. And since they don't want his continued stay in office, any harm done to their heroes (Akaeke's friends), the people would take it out on Nigerians especially if they trace it to our government's action."
Keyamo's role
Following their arrest, there were strong indications that Akaeke and his colleagues were to be extradited to Equitorial Guinea for trial.
It was at that stage that Lagos lawayer, Festus Keyamo, petitioned the United Nations Secretary General urging him to act fast to secure their release before they were "slaughtered."
Keyamo's letter read in parts: " …sometime early in the year 2005, (Akaeke) was allegedly contacted by someone, on behalf of (the three officers) to provide them with a crew boat to enable them carry workers from Boma in Kinshasha, Congo DR, to work in oil rig in Malabo and Batar in Equitorial Guinea. Upon provision of the boat, the Nigerian was allegedly conscripted into a coup plot, and he was allegedly asked to help them procure rocket launchers and grenades from the Nigerian Military to use in overthrowing the government in Equitorial Guinea."
While urging the UN Secretary General to take urgent steps to prevent the extradition of the detainees, Keyamo expressed the fear that they stood the risk of being executed by the government of Equitorial Guinea without due process.