Justin Nwankwo, the former manager of Upper Class Hotel, Onitsha, demolished in 2013 over alleged use of the hotel for kidnapping activities, relived his harrowing experience in the hands of the operatives of the dreaded Awkuzu SARS yesterday, saying that he was detained for 81days during which the policemen hit his scrotum intermittently to extract information from him.
Nwankwo, who is claiming N50 million as damages for the property lost as a result of the demolition of the hotel, is currently a senior lecturer at the Federal Polytechnic, Oko. After appearing yesterday before the judicial panel of inquiry set up by Governor Willie Obiano to look into police brutality in the state, which led to #endSARS protests, the former manager said that at the time of his arrest and detention, he was pursuing his PhD programme.
According to him, most of the people who lodged in the hotel on the day of the demolition were traders who also brought their articles of trade into their rooms, adding that they also had terrible stories to tell about their experience in the hands of the police.
While denying that there were incidences of kidnapping at Upper Class Hotel, he, however observed that the owner of the hotel was a very big land agent in Onitsha, adding that what happened to the hotel on that 1st August, 2013 could be the effect of envious business transaction.
He said: “The torture I went through at Awkuzu SARS 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 with the title, ‘Otokoto in Onitsha’, which was even enough torture to me, a PhD student at the time.
“They packed 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 hairs were 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 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 around many police stations in Onitsha in a black van and eventually arrived Awkuzu SARS around 3 pm and the torture began. We were in the torture hall till around 8pm.
“We were eventually released after 81 days and the police said their hands were tied and that there was nothing else they could do than to wait for further instructions.
“At the end of the day, they manufactured a case and took us to court because there were pressures from human right organizations, coupled with the fact that government wanted a safe landing.” Nwankwo said he believed that the owner of the hotel was set up by his adversaries who were looking for avenues to get at him over land and motor park businesses he was involved in.
“The demolition of his hotel was one way they could get at him. We, the staff, were not part of those deals, but we suffered man’s inhumanity to man.
“The hotel was demolished on the same day we were arrested. The police started its investigation the same day and ended it the same day, culminating in the demolition of the hotel the same day.
“It marvelled us at the speed the hotel was demolished. The government did not come up with any security report on why the hotel should be demolished.
“When they arrested us, they should have investigated the hotel before demolishing it. They should have got a court order before doing anything. When we were arrested and taken to Awkuzu SARS, the news filtered in immediately that the hotel had been demolished and there was no opportunity for anybody to pick up any personal belonging,” he said amid sobs. (Vanguard)
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