…Incarcerated for 16 years
TIME was when some people of sudden wealth took over the landscape of Imo State. They did whatever they liked, when, how and where they chose. Some even felt that spotting policemen as orderlies were no longer fashionable hence they settled for armed soldiers.

More often than not, they were seen blocking the roads completely, while chatting with their friends. Anybody that dared to protest got the severest beating of his life. The “bouncers” around them descended on motorists at will and even went as far as denting people’s cars at the slightest “provocation”. Nobody dared to call them names. They were gods of sorts.

They threw money at people with ease. Royal fathers fell over heels and wanted to outdo each other in their mad rush to hand out chieftaincy titles to this class of people. All these acts angered the people.


Mr. Ebenezer Egwuekwe
It was no wonder that people’s anger boiled over in 1996, when they heard about the brutal beheading of 11-year old Innocent Okonkwo and his eventual burial in a shallow grave located in Otokoto Hotels, Amakohia, Owerri. That marked the limit of their endurance. They could take no more and the result was a mass protest in Owerri.

Angry residents of Owerri moved from point to the other in search of these people of very questionable wealth. Buildings belonging to such people were torched. Their personal effects were either burnt or looted by people. Cases of missing persons, dehumanization, brutalization, molestation and wanton destruction of property belonging to hapless and helpless citizens abated in the state.

The spontaneous agitation by the people gingered the security agencies into action. A lot of people were arrested and suffered serious deprivations as a result. A new vista of life commenced. Virtually all the people working in Otokoto Hotel, including the Hotel Manager, Mr. Ebenezer Egwuekwe, were arrested.

Summary trial
If residents of Owerri were given the opportunity, all the suspects would have been given summary trial by the mob and lynched. All the same, the suspects suffered varying levels of indignity. Members of their different families even had worse stories to tell than those cooling their heels in prison. A couple of those described by the police as “the prime suspects” were later arraigned in court. After a long tortuous criminal trial in Owerri, they were sentenced to death.

The convicts, including 62-year old Ebenezer Egwuekwe, were moved to Federal Prisons, Port Harcourt. However, armed with his stoic belief in his innocence, Egwuekwe appealed his death sentence. This battle for life lasted about 16 years! For the family, it remains a thing of joy that their bread winner did not die in prison while the legal battle lasted. They are also happy that 16 years after, the innocence of Egwuekwe has been upheld by the Court of Appeal.

His ordeal started when one of the staff of Otokoto Hotel was caught with a fresh human head at Eziama, in the Ikeduru Local Council Area. He was asked to report to police which he did. He was subsequently arrested and charged for murder.

Narrating his prison experience, Egwuekwe said he was moved from one prison to another. According to him, his worst experience was in Port Harcourt where he was treated like a condemned criminal. “If I had committed anything worthy of imprisonment, I would have accepted my fate but unfortunately, I did nothing to warrant 16 years of suffering. While in prison, all my friends deserted me and my wife and eight children passed through very difficult times,” Egwuekwe said.

He recalled with grief that his few landed properties were sold to pay his legal fees and take care of his feeding. He stated that he cannot fully express the level of hardship his family passed through as he was the only bread winner of the family.

Egwuekwe was, however, thankful to God that despite his travails, he has been released and cleared of all the charges slammed on him. He however appealed to people of goodwill to assist him get back on his feet and be integrated into the free society again. He added:“ I don’t know where to start life again. I don’t even know with what to start with again. My mates, who started the race with me, have since overtaken me.”

Speaking also, his first son, Mr. Ifeanyi Egwuekwe, affirmed that the family passed through very hard times since their father was arrested and incarcerated.

“Besides spending a staggering N2.5 million as legal fees, the family also incurred other expenses. In all, we are very happy that our dear father has been reunited with the family”, Ifeanyi said.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/01/freedom-at-last-for-otokoto-murder-suspect/

Good for him. I can imagine what the man must have gone through for 16 years.

Good news for the family. Now he is out, he would see how far nigeria has gone

freedom @ last

Hmmmm....

check out dis link www.nairaland.com/1167006/ineresting-facts-didnt-knw

BRB!

He should take the government to court for false imprisonment

The police need to stop the act of rounding up people unconnected with crimes and charging them arbitrarily. If not for social media campaigns and the higher level of awareness in Lagos, they would have charged the chemists in Cynthia Osukogu's case for murder too. The hotel management may be negligent, but that does not equal to murder.

After all the suffering. Anyway congratulations for ur freedom

Another clifford orji in the making.Ride on oldman and hack some folks.nonsense

Congrats to him, but he needs to sue the Nigeria police force

I hope he is coming BAck 4another ritual....

Is he truly innocent of the crime?
As a manager of the hotel where killings and mass burial are being carried out, he cannot deny having any knowledge of what was happening under his nose, he might have just decided to shut his mouth.

geeez: So he's back now and can continue from where he stopped. The 11yr old he beheaded would have been a 27yr old man now. How sad

How did you know he killed him or did you read the story at all.

Interesting, was thinking it was otokutu in delta state, thank Goodness.
By the way, no comments on his release.

GOD SAVE US FROM EVIL DOERS

It will be very had to be integrated into the society...

#ajoo afa ajoka#

Eneze1: Congrats to him, but he needs to sue the Nigeria police force

for wetin?

Moni talking talking so u dey claim inno for weting d whole world know say u do Go home and sin again soon

How can any reasonable human being prove that a hotel manager have no idea that innocent people are being killed and buried in his premises? Is he managing this hotel with proxies? Mr manager, confess your sins and seek forgiveness from Almighty GOD. What you just escaped is human judgement but there will be no ESCAPE when Karma decides to locate you.

sometimes, jungle justice serve us better but all the same, he has his stars to thank. been lucky today does not mean he will be lucky all the time.

OTOKOTO OTOKOTO OTOKOTO
I did nothing to warrant 16 years of suffering. While in prison, all my friends deserted me and my wife and eight children passed through very difficult times,” Egwuekwe said.
IF PRISONs has FReed U! You are noth freed indeed, GOD wll still judge You!

A lot of water have passed under the bridge if actually a judge in his good state of mind released you or set you free. Otokoto the owner of that hotel was also found guilty, the manager of the hotel is now innocent.
Manager or Mr manager, you still have issues to settle with all the families you witnessed their sons and daughters killed and buried in your domain. Just watch your back because they must come for you.
Well i am not surprised, because Nigerian judges sees no evil when their demands are fulfilled. Ibori was also set free by a Nigerian Judge.

Damn! 16 years?
How is he going to fit back into the system, considering we now view people in other countries using webcams and iPhones, as opposed to the juju calabash they were using?

Okija_juju:


He was the Manager of a Hotel where a headless corpse of an 11 year old boy was buried. Can he truly swear that he did not know what his boss was up to?!

I am happy he is free.. If he did it, I hope the 16 years would have rehabilitated him, if he was innocent all along, I hope he has learnt how to pick his jobs wisely!

Go and Sin no more Mr. Ebenezer..

I agree with you 100%, in fact if I am the manager of a hotel I will walk round the hotel and the rooms daily to check for signs that someone might have been buried overnight! DUH!

All drinkers of blood and eaters of flesh and ritualist shall die this yr!

If the man has been from honest, we need to be sympathy of his plight. I support the nigeria police or system compensate him for the lost of 16years of his life.

our inefficient police system will not charge people in good time