Business mogul demands justice after imprisonment

Juliana FrancisAfter being arrested for murder and tagged a ritualist, a business mogul who was eventually remanded in Onitsha prisons, is now out and crying for justice.
The business magnate, Chief Bonaventure Mokwe, was arrested in connection with allegations of murder and ritual.
Barely hours that Mr. Mokwe was arrested,  his Upper Class Hotel, situated at 8, Old Market Road, Onitsha, was leveled to the grounds.
Mokwe was arrested by the police and later remanded in Onitsha prisons.
He had since secured his bail and is fighting tooth and nail to make sure that the state government, which hurriedly pulled down his hotel without recourse to proper police investigation, to pay him damages and restore his reputation and that of his late father, whom he inherited the hotel from.
An apparently furious Mokwe said his late father’s name and reputation was smeared, when the hotel was described as a ‘proceed of crime.’
According to him, that hotel was where the present Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi’s mother used to patronize and buys liquor to sell during the 70s.
The hotel was built by his late father and handed over to him. Mokwe said that the hotel had been in existence for 40 years. He could not understand and forgive anyone describing his father’s hotel as a ‘proceed of crime.’
He seethes: “I won’t back down an inch until that hotel has been restored. My reputation was destroyed. How could you arrest somebody by 8am and by 11am, you’d already ordered for the demolition of the hotel? Governor Peter Obi told me that he was misinformed. The towns’ people and lawyers had written to Obi on this matter.
“At this state, I have my father’s name to salvage. I owe it as a duty to make sure I salvage my late father’s reputation even though it means an end to my life!
“I have handed all my investments to my first son, to begin to handle them, so that I can fight this battle! I want the state government to sit down with my lawyers and pay me damages for my property. I have all the time in the world. Let them pay me my money; you can’t beat somebody and ask him not to cry.
“Nobody can wish this case away! My green card was destroyed! Everything I had was destroyed! There are things I don’t wish to say, but I might say them out of anger. Obi made a mistake; he should be man enough to admit it!”
Mokwe believed that he was cleverly set up by an enemy he knows, he however was not happy that Obi allegedly instructed the demolition of his hotel, without trying to find out first if he was guilty or not. Now, he wants the state government to restore that hotel.
Narrating the beginning of his ordeal, Mokwe said: “Prior to August, 1, 2013, the date I was arrested and my hotel demolition, I was involved in a motor park dispute with Onitsha natives headed by one Mr. Patrick, a native of Onitsha, Umudie Village and it was running for close to four months before August, 1, 2013.
“Within that period, I wrote the Obi of Onitsha three good times, asking him to intervene and call Onitsha youths to order and he remained silent. All of the three letters were sent by UPS courier services. When that failed, I wrote a petition to Anambra State Commissioner of Police and he signed on the petition to Onitsha Area commander who in turn assigned the case to one inspector Dike.
“When that again failed, I went to court and obtained a court order which was served on the palace of Obi of Onitsha, the police and Mr. Patrick, the chairman of Onitsha youth in charge of Ose market Motor Park. Soon after that, Aghamelum bus drivers started loading in my park.
“All hell broke loose after that. Threats of all dimension started coming from the youths of Onitsha which culminated in the planting of the exhibits in my hotel. Two old human skulls, two Ak 47 rifles, two loaded magazines were all packed in one bagco bag and planted in the wardrobe at my hotel lodging room number 102. If anything, the guest who lodged in that room should have been arrested, not me. I was arrested and my hotel pulled down because I was the target of the set up.”
Explaining how he was arrested, Mokwe said that on that fateful day, “I drove into my office around 7:am and before I could settled down in my office, my hotel was surrounded by policemen numbering over 100. As I made my way towards my office entrance, some police officers were already in the passage. I was taken into my office and shown a search warrant.
“In the process of doing that, one police officer betrayed the whole adventure when he shouted to my staff outside of my office to be shown room 102. It did not make sense to me at the time. He was later to stumble into my office with relentless ranting but was shouted down by one of the police officers.
“The mock searching exercise started and ended after five minutes or thereabout at the door of room 102 with myself, the hotel manager and the receptionist and a lot of police officers. Incidentally, the lodger locked the room and left with the key around 6:30 am and a little after which the policemen showed up.
“The manager informed the policemen that the room was given to one Mr. John Obi in the evening of July, 31, 2013. The receptionist brought the duplicate of the lodging receipts in addition with the hotel guest manifest and both reflected John Obi as the occupant at room 102. With the whereabouts of the lodger unknown, the police broke the door and entered.
“The first thing I saw when the door was opened was an open travelling bag on the floor of the room. A lot of waterproof was inside the bag and two waterproofs on the bed. Nothing was found in the toilet and under the bed. The police then opened the wardrobe of the room and brought out one single bagco bag. Inside it was two rotten human skulls, two AK 47 guns that looked unserviceable and two loaded magazines, all in a bag.
“I was immediately handcuffed and taken to the corridor of the hotel and was told to sit next to the exhibits while they took pictures. Soon after that, I, along with my staff were taken to police area command Onitsha and paraded before journalists. I was also taken to my house and nothing was recovered. We were subsequently taken to SARS Awkuzu along with my wife who is a lawyer at the ministry of Justice Anambra State and detained.”
Moke said that at SARS Awkuzu, the identity of the person who lodged in room102 was unmasked.
“His real name is Egbuchiem, a native of Onitsha, Umudie Village. Mr. Patrick is also from Onitsha Umudie Village. His picture was smuggled and shown to the receptionist and he positively identified his as the person he gave receipt of room 102 on that the fateful day. He was the one that planted the exhibits in the hotel room wardrobe.”
The man said he almost died in the first two or three days at SARS detention, adding that the treatment he received could result to an instant death of an innocent suspect.
He mused aloud: “Any confessional statement emanating from SARS Awkuzu is a function of an individual pain threshold. The place appears to lack funding and scientific device of any kind that could enable the police isolate innocent people from criminals. I spent a total of two months and 17 days at SARS Awkuzu.”
He continued his narration: “A week or thereabout after I arrived SARS Awkuzu, it became increasingly clear that the incident was a set-up. Matters were not helped by what occurred when the police first took me to the grave of one Mr. Nwoye Akas Oredo, a native of Nkwelle Ezunaka, Itite Village Akpukwu family who died in 1972 when I was still running around naked and they told me that I killed and buried the man at the place.
“The same day, I was taken to a large fenced compound at 33 Nkwelle Ezunaka with the belief that I owned the land only to discover that the property did not belong to me. A portion of the fence was knocked down by the police and an old decayed human body wrapped in a brand-new waterproof was exhumed from a not more than two feet grave. No attempt was made by the police to arrest the real owner of the property for investigation on how the dead body came about. It was all heaped on me.
“No complainant was in sight two months into the case. Till date, there is no complainant irrespective of police terrible effort in manufacturing one in their bid to save Governor Peter Obi from his self-Inflicted liability.”
Mokwe said that a petition was written by his lawyers to the IGP, listing the names of those behind his set up, but “the police deliberately sat on it because arresting them would mean releasing me and that would have meant a state financial liability and embarrassment for Governor Peter Obi.
“With the police under relentless pressure, I, along with three of my staff was arraigned in court on October, 17, 2013 and a manufactured murder charge along with possession of human skull and firearms was heaped on us and we were subsequently reminded in prison till November, 4, 2013 when we were granted bail.”
The businessman, who has already hired lawyers to fight his case, including renowned lawyer, Femi Falana, said that the true reasons why his hotel was speedily demolished within hours of his arrest, without informing the police command “are also in the custody of my lawyers, Falana and Falana chambers. All these will be made public when and if the need arises by Falana and Falana chambers.
“The demolition of my hotel had nothing to do with fighting crime. Latter day approach made by Obi to the State House Assembly to pass a law to legalize his illegal and self-serving demolition of my hotel speaks volume and so are other facts that are yet to be made public.”