Posted by By HENRY CHUKWURAH, Port Harcourt on
Tomorrow, a Port Harcourt High Court will begin proceedings in a case of alleged torture of an erstwhile student by the police for daring to condemn a policy of the Rivers State government.
Tomorrow, a Port Harcourt High Court will begin proceedings in a case of alleged torture of an erstwhile student by the police for daring to condemn a policy of the Rivers State government.
Not only was the plaintiff, Mr Owolo Santos Owolo allegedly beaten while in detention, he was chained by his interrogators who also tied a rope to his 'manhood' and drew it in a bid to extract information from him.
Owolo's torture was later spiced with a ‘free' ride round Port Harcourt including the cemetery, with his two legs chained.
An aggrieved Owolo later dragged the Inspector-General of Police, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) and the Governor of Rivers State, to court.
Joined in the suit that was initially filed in 2002 but withdrawn due to, 'a lot of mix-up" in the supporting affidavit and now refilled by his lawyer, M. P. Ngini are Mr. Fred Alasia, then Director of NOA in Rivers State and the state Police Commissioner.
The plaintiff deposed in his affidavit in support of a motion on notice that his woes started on July 10, 2001, when he was invited to Mr Alasia's office because of a letter he wrote to the governor in reaction to an earlier newspaper publication made by Mr Alasia.
He averred that apart from 'verbal abuses" on his person, Mr Alasia (4th respondent) told him that the governor had directed on the said letter to him with red ink, 'indicating that I should be arrested, detained and tortured".
Owolo stated that the then Commander of Swift Operation Squad, Mr Godwin Obielum, was later contacted on phone to effect his arrest, adding that his attempt to leave Mr Alasia's office, 'when I realized I had been lured to his office", was foiled by security personnel.
'On getting to the (SOS) office they chained my two legs, asked and ordered me to write my statement.
Amid that they dragged me into their Commander's office where again, I saw the 4th respondent seated while the Commander questioned me and ordered his men to carry out a thorough investigation and report back."
The plaintiff stated that when the policemen could not extract 'the type of answers they wanted", they started beating him.
'They took me to a stagnant pool of flood water and pushed me into it and ordered me to swim in it like a dock which I did by reason of which I was completely soaked and stinking 'Thereafter, they kept me under the sun for roughly two hours. They later transferred me to the Old GRA Police Station, Port Harcourt, and dumped me in a cell called Angola, with hardened criminals whose names I cannot recollect".
The plaintiff deposed further that two days later, the SOS policemen came and picked him from the cell, 'got my two legs chained again and put me inside a Peugeot 505 car and drove round the Port Harcourt town and finally to Port Harcourt cemetery" , asking him to state how he got the information contained in his letter to the governor.
'They removed my short and tied a rope on my penis and drew the rope time and time again while I kept on shouting".
Owolo said that he was detained for about eight days and that he regained his freedom when the Civil Liberties Organization sent a lawyer, Chief M.P. Ngini, to wade into the matter. On his release, he was treated at the Braithwaite Memorial Hospital, Port Harcourt.