The Anambra State Judicial Panel of Enquiry on Police Brutality today heard the testimony of Mrs Christiana Nnatuanya,the widow of Late Linus Nnatuanya,who allegedly died in the custody of Awkuzu Unit of Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) Anambra State.
She today told the panel that she doesn’t know how to tell her seven children that she doesn’t know where the grave of their late father is.
According to her as she testified today,she said that her husband was arrested in Ogbaru Area of Anambra State sometime in January 2007 without a warrant duly signed by a court of law.She further said that it took six days before she knew her husbands whereabout,it took people in the area for her to know that it was men of the Nigerian Police attached to the SARS unit that arrested her husband.
She said her husband told her when she finally when to the SARS office in Awkuzu to see him that he was arrested on claims that he was a member of Movement For Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), she said her husband was allergic to environmental conditions of the cell where he was kept and the police officers told her to bring four hundred thousand naira(#400,000) before her husband can be released,she said she was just able to raise forty thousand naira (#40,000) and by the time she returned,she was told that her husband has been moved to abuja.
According to her,it was a man arrested alongside her husband by name Ugochukwu Eze who hails from Ebonyi State that told her died in Police custody and uptill this moment her husband or his corpse has not been seen.
She said she wants to know exactly where her husband was buried so that she can collect sand from there as a significance and perform a proper burial and raise a tombstone for him.
She equally appealed for prosecution of the officers involved in the crime and a compensation of fifty million naira (#50,000,000) paid to her to cushion the hardship the loss of her husband inflicted on her.
Innocent Obi representing the legal department of the State criminal Investigation Department ,asked the panel to rule that there was no such infringement on the part of the police as there are no records of such incident.
The Chairman of the panel Ordered a full scale investigation on this matter brought before it.
476
previous post