… My client is dying, seeing blood in stool – Emperor’s lawyer cries out
Ladu Martins is the counsel for a lawyer, Gabriel Ogbonna, who was arrested and detained by the Department of State Services after he allegedly posted a defamatory comment on social media against the Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu. He tells GBENRO ADEOYE about his client’s detention and how it is affecting his health.
What is the latest development on the detention of your client, Gabriel Ogbonna?
We filed something on fundamental rights; it is not a substantive application. They have not charged him for any offence yet. He is still in the custody of the Department of State Services.
Are you allowed to see him?
We have been there to see him but sometimes, they tell us that we can’t see him.
When was the last time you saw him?
That was about two weeks when we (lawyers and some members of the Nigerian Bar Association from Aba) went to meet the state director of the Department of State Services. We even submitted a written application for his release. What the man told us was that the same people wrote a petition to Abuja and that he was waiting for a directive from Abuja. He said he would get back to us.
Who are those behind the petition? Who are the people he was referring to?
From the circumstances of the case, it is the Abia State Government that is behind the petition because I was in court. He was initially arrested over an allegation that he made some comments on social media that were against the Governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu. He was arrested on March 24, 2020 and on April 28, 2020, the court granted him bail. After the court granted him bail, we were perfecting his bail conditions within the court and I decided to drive to the office. As I was driving to the office, I saw three SUVs that were parked (by the road). I passed the first one and as I was approaching the second one, the two others blocked me; that was around the court area.
Who were the people in the vehicles?
Some DSS officials and the Chief of Staff to the Abia State Governor, A. C. B. Agbazuere, came down. They asked me who I had in my car and I said there was nobody there. They said Ogbonna was in my car and I said no. They asked me to wind down the rear window as my car had tinted windows. I did that and they checked inside to be sure that he was not there. When they confirmed that he was not there, they allowed me to go.
Meanwhile, we had an agreement with the prison officials to take him back to prison to prevent his re-arrest so that by the time we would perfect his bail conditions, we would secure his release without those government officials knowing about it. That was the arrangement we made. When we perfected his bail conditions, one of the prison officials came to the court and collected his release warrant. But before the prison official could get to the prison, the chief of staff to the state governor and the DSS officials had got there.
The chief of staff informed the district controller of prison that they had received information from the court that he had been released and that his release warrant was already there. So the district controller called the prison officer with the release warrant and asked him and of course, he would not lie to his boss. Ogbonna then told the district officer that he didn’t want to leave yet so the chief of staff called Abuja and from there, they called the district controller here and asked why they were keeping someone who had already been released.
The district controller said there was an order form above that Ogbonna should go. That was how they rearrested him within the prison premises and took him to the DSS office. They said an NGO, which we don’t know its name or if it is registered, wrote a petition against him that he made some comments on social media about President Muhammadu Buhari. The question now is if it was Buhari that ordered that he should be rearrested, then it should not be an Umuahia affair.
Two, if it was the Federal Government that wanted him arrested, why was it the chief of staff to the Abia State governor the one that led the DSS to make the arrest? The governor of Abia is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party while Buhari is a member of the All Progressives Congress.
So, was your client taken to Abuja?
We don’t know if he has been taken to Abuja or not. I have not confirmed if it is true. We decided to challenge the matter in court since we couldn’t secure his release. We were looking for a simple way to secure his release and they started making promises that he would be released but didn’t release him.
That was why we did not file an application immediately. They didn’t inform us that he was taken to Abuja so we don’t know if he has been taken there but we have served them with a court process. If they have taken him to Abuja, they will file their reply and tell the court that he has been taken to Abuja and state the reason why he was rearrested.
Does it mean you don’t know his whereabouts?
The last I saw him, he was at the DSS office in Umuahia; that was about two weeks ago. I will find out if he has been taken to Abuja or not. He was initially arrested on March 24 and released on April 28 but he didn’t get any freedom because he was rearrested immediately. We don’t need a prophet to tell us that it is the Abia State Government that is behind it.
How was he arrested the first time?
It was the same Agbazuere that came to his office in Aba with 15 armed police officers to arrest him. After arresting him, they took him straight to police headquarters, Umuahia. At the police headquarters, they didn’t waste time. He made a statement and they took him to a magistrates’ court and charged him for an offence that they knew the magistrate had no jurisdiction to try – cyber crime. That was why the magistrate remanded him in prison.
From your interactions with him, did he mention if he was ever assaulted?
He complained that he was not being treated well but he didn’t say he was assaulted. The last time I saw him, he was totally broken.
What do you mean by ‘broken’?
He looked like he had been tormented psychologically to such an extent that he was weak. He has ulcer and he said he was seeing blood in his stool. Also, he has a gunshot injury on his leg. He was attacked sometime ago by gunmen. In fact, he should have been to the hospital to see a doctor because of the gunshot injury. So the situation is complicating his health condition. He is away from his family so it has affected him psychologically. He said it was the Bible that was consoling him. He said he would just sit by the window to look at the premises of the DSS office.
Is his pregnant wife allowed to see him?
They didn’t allow his wife to see him the last time she tried to see him. She is heavily pregnant; she is eight months pregnant. That was last Monday when she was at the DSS office in Umuahia. The only time she saw her husband was when he was in prison before he was rearrested. When he was in prison, the officials there normally allowed her to see him anytime she came there. But since April 28 when he was rearrested, she has not seen her husband.
How do you think that has affected his family, from your observation?
The family are really suffering. I am not sure his wife has a serious job. The last time I was with him, I heard him telling other lawyers with us that they should tell his wife to manage and be going to his office to see if she could be getting any money there. There was no money available for her to be using to take care of her and her children.
His children are asking their mother, ‘Where is our daddy?’ There is no proper care and you know lawyers make money based on the number of cases they handle. And as it is, he can’t make any money. They have four children and expecting another child in one month’s time. If he is not released in the next one month, it means his wife will deliver in his absence. We are hoping he will be out by then because what we filed will come up on June 2. We just obtained an order to serve the director general of the DSS because we also joined him in the fundamental rights suit. The state officers are under him.
Did you read the comments he allegedly made about Ikpeazu and Buhari?
They were just normal social media posts. There was one where he said the President didn’t even know the proper name of COVID-19, he called it COVIK-1, 9. And in another one, he said Buhari hated Igbo people and that his appointments were lopsided. He said he was trying to Islamise the country.
About the governor, there was a document in circulation online. It was claimed that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission got the document from the house of a former governor and the document said a current governor took an oath at a shrine in India that he would be loyal to his predecessor.
On his Facebook wall, he said something like this: ‘Since yesterday, a document has been circulating and it was purportedly signed by a governor from the South-East stating that he took an oath at a shrine that he would abide by an agreement with his predecessor.’ And in conclusion, he said if what was in the document was true, then he was disappointed because of the extent people would go because of mere power. That was the only thing he posted. He didn’t mention the name of anyone. He said ‘purported’ and ‘if’. How can the governor now allege that he was the one who released the document?
He didn’t even share the document; he only commented on the document, and alleged that there was a document so no one would know what document he was talking about and the governor he was referring to. We have five governors in the South-East so it could be any of them. No one would know the former governor he was also referring to. Nobody knows the source of the document.
It was just something that went viral on the Internet. That was why he didn’t share the document but only commented on it. His comment was reasonable. He said if found to be true.
What about an allegation that he said some money was mismanaged by the governor?
I am not aware of that. It is not what the charge filed in court was about. It would have formed part of the case in court if that was true.
What are your demands at this point?
The first thing is that his arrest was unlawful. Two, his continued detention is unconstitutional since he has been kept beyond the period allowed by the constitution. Three, we seek an order for him to be released. Four, we claim monetary damages of N50m. We sued the DG of DSS, DSS as a corporate body, the state director of DSS and Agbazuere.
