nthony Onuagbara is a typical Nigerian youth who had high hopes after graduation. However, for the indigent 26-year-old graduate of Marketing from Anambra State University, hope is fast giving way to despair. Why? He is fast losing his sight in one eye as a result of the beating and torture he allegedly received from men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Ado-Ekiti on August 12, 2012 for a crime he did not commit.
Onuagbara was happy when he received his call-up letter for the mandatory one-year national service. His posting to Ekiti State was an answer to his prayer that he should not be posted to any of the states currently under the siege of the violent Boko Haram sect. Though the first graduate in his family, the joy Onuagbara had during the orientation programme has since evaporated and he now wears a gloomy face while he watches his future slip away.
Narrating how he became blind in his right eye, he said the incident happened when some policemen attached to the SARS stormed his residence at Adebayo area of Ado-Ekiti and arrested him and three others.
He said a corps member, who he identified as Michael, had brought a prostitute to the house around 6pm. However, a quarrel arose between the duo over how much the lady should be paid. Onuagbara said Michael, who was one of the tenants in the house which had about 20 rooms, claimed that he told the lady that he would pay N2,000 for her services, but the lady insisted on collecting N3,000. This disagreement caused a quarrel and the lady went away.
He explained that he was in his room, relaxing, when some fierce-looking armed policemen from SARS invaded the house around 11pm and broke the door to his room and hit him on the face several times with rifle butts.
He said, “At around 11pm on August 12, I was in my room and I heard a bang on the door. Before I knew what was happening, some policemen from SARS broke the door into my room and started beating me.
“They hit me with the butts of their rifles and I sustained injury to my right eye. I started bleeding profusely, but despite my condition, I was locked up in the cell for four days.
“One Mr. Okeya, a lawyer, came to the police station and secured my bail four days later. During my detention, I was not allowed medical treatment and my eye swelled up.”
The corps member, who broke into tears as he narrated his ordeal, said he was later arraigned at a Magistrate’s Court in Ado-Ekiti. He alleged that the police fabricated a rape charge and possession of dangerous weapon against him. The “dangerous weapon” in his possession was a kitchen knife found in his room.
Onuagbara said he was puzzled that the possession of a kitchen knife in his home was a criminal offence.
He said the court dismissed the case on September 5, when the police withdrew the charges preferred against him. According to him, the most surprising thing about the prosecution was that the lady who brought in the police did not appear in court, even for once.
Due to lack of money, Onuagbara, after the dismissal of the case, did not seek medical treatment. However, matters came to a head one day as he was walking on the road: he collapsed and woke up at the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti, where his fellow corps members had rushed him to.
“On the hospital bed, I heard the doctors saying something about surgery. My eye was eventually operated upon,” Onuagbara said.
He paid N5,000 for the surgery, but before the surgical intervention, the right eye had sunk deep into its socket and he could no longer see with it.
The corps member, who now goes about with dark glasses, said some of his colleagues who felt that the police had been unfair to him informed some human rights activists who took up the case with the police.
However, he still needs more medical attention to correct his sight because he has gone partially blind.
Onuagbara said his mother wept bitterly when she saw the extent of his injury when he visited home for the Yuletide. Worse still, the family has no money to seek further medical treatment to correct his sight.
Asked why he kept his ordeal from the National Youth Service Corps, Onuagbara said he informed the zonal inspector but the man kept it from his superior who could take the matter up with the police.
The Coordinator of the NYSC in the state, Mr. Baba Ahmed, when contacted by our correspondent, said he was not aware of the case. He, however, promised to investigate it.
He promised that the NYSC would take up the case with the police and ensure that the young man was not abandoned. He said whosoever injured him should be made to pay for it.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Victor Babayemi, said other corps members had petitioned the commissioner of police on Onuagbara’s behalf.
He said, “The corps member has written to the Commissioner of Police over the incident and an investigative panel has been set up by the command to look into the case.
“I can’t pre-empt the outcome. But I can assure you that if any official acted in such a brutal manner, he would be made to face the music. We need a little more time to complete the investigation and truth shall be revealed.”
Onuagbara called on public-spirited Nigerians to assist him get better medical attention to regain his sight, while seeking justice against his attackers.