I was detained for 81 days in Anambra, SARS brutality victim tells panel

A VICTIM of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Anambra State, Dr. Justin Nwankwo, on Tuesday told the state’s judicial panel of enquiry that he was detained for 81 days and tortured.

Nwankwo said his scrotum was nearly damaged as the SARS officials at Awkuzum in Oyi Local Government Area of Anambra State tortured him intermittently.

The victim said he was the then Manager of Upper Class Hotel in Onitsha, which was demolished in 2013 by the former Anambra State government, for alleged use for kidnapping.

Reliving his experience in the hands of SARS operatives before Justice V. N. Umeh-led panel, the victim alleged that the policemen hit his scrotum intermittently to extract information from him.

Nwankwo, who is currently a lecturer at the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, is claiming N50 million as damages for the property loss as a result of the demolition of the hotel.

The academic, who testified at the panel set up by Governor Willie Obiano about two weeks ago, following the #EndSARs protests in the state, recalled that at the time of his arrest and detention, he was pursuing his PhD programme.

He said most of the people who lodged in the demolished hotel by the previous administration, were traders who also brought their wares into their rooms.

Nwankwo added that the customers had terrible stories to tell about their experiences in the hands of the security operatives in the state.

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He denied that there were cases of kidnapping at the hotel, which allegedly led to its demolition by the previous administration.

He said: “The torture I went through at Awkuzu SARS (office) was horrible. The painful thing was that they took an innocent man to a detention camp without giving him an opportunity to defend himself.

“After the demolition of the hotel and our detention, some newspapers had screaming headlines, such as: ‘Otokoto in Onitsha’, which was even enough torture to me, a PhD student at the time.

“They parked us into a police van to a torture camp. They wanted me to join as a prosecution witness against the owner of the hotel and because I refused to do that, my own torture was the most severe.

“They tried to force me to say that there were activities of kidnapping in the hotel, which was not true.

“So, when you hear that my scrotum was damaged and that I was hanged and my hair was pulled, it was to force me, the second in command in the hotel, to admit what was not true so that I could be joined in the matter.

“Apart from the torture, the 81 days of incarceration was something one would not want to remember.

“I was in the black cell of Awkuzu SARS for 81 days and it is a miracle that I am still breathing because nobody stays in Awkuzu SARS for that number of days and survives.

“They were hitting my scrotum to extract information from me by force. They even forced me to thumbprint on a statement I did not write.

“Imagine a near illiterate forcing a PhD student to thumbprint in a comatose condition, a statement he did not generate.

“At the time they forced my finger on the paper, I was unconscious and they poured three buckets of water on me to revive me to enable them use my thumbprint.

“This happened on the day of the arrest, after they took us round many police stations in Onitsha in a black van and eventually arrived Awkuzu SARS around 3 p.m and the torture began. We were in the torture hall till around 8 p.m.”