Emmanuel
Masha, Port Harcourt
The wife of
the late Port Harcourt based mechanic, Chima Ikwunado, Mrs Adugo, has appealed
to the Rivers State Police Command to produce her late husband, who was
allegedly tortured to death, for a proper burial.
Adugo, who
spoke at a world press conference, yesterday, in Port Harcourt, faulted the
allegation by the police that her late husband died in detention as a result of
high level of sugar. She insisted that her husband was tortured to death for an
offence he didn't commit.
She said
that before they got married last year, "we did HIV, sugar level and some
other medical tests. My husband was never sick. Police is lying. I want them to
give me my husband's corpse.”
Weeping
loudly during the press briefing, a heavily pregnant Adugo said: “The police
tortured my husband in their cell. Since December 10, 2019, I have not seen my
husband. It was on January 5th that my father in-law called to tell me that my
husband had been killed. I have no father, I don't have money and I don't
know what to do with my unborn baby. I want the police to produce my husband's
corpse so that I can bury him.”
Adugo also
dismissed the allegation that her husband was a cultist as alleged by the
Police..
She said:
"I knew my husband two months before we married. He was not a bad person.
He didn't have bad friends. He has never stayed late night since we got married.”
In a related
development, a coalition of civil society organizations in Rivers State has
called on the United States Embassy, European Union, United Arab Emirates to
cancel any visa application by anybody found culpable in the murder of Chima.
The
coalition also demanded that the same treatment for anybody that had a hand in
the "unlawful" detention of four other mechanics still in police cell
in the state.
The group
urged Amnesty International and global rights groups to initiate actions in the
international criminal court against any police officer involved in Chima's
death.
The
president of the Rivers Civil Society Organization in the state, Comrade Enefaa
Georgewill, who spoke at the conference, called on the National Assembly not to
allow Chima's death to be swept under the carpet.
He noted
that there were too many torture chambers used to forcibly extract information
from suspects in the state.
The
coalition also called on the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, "to step
into the matter and direct the attorney general of the state to cause those
boys in detention to be freed and the Commissioner for Health made to ensure
they are given the best treatment money can provide. The governor should also
direct the attorney general to call for an inquest into the circumstances that
led to the dead of Chima.”
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