Nigerian court frees 'dead son'

For the last six years, Mr Nwaokporo's family believed he was dead

A Nigeria man, believed dead by his family, has been released from police custody on bail after seven years in detention without charge.

Ugochukwu Nwaokporo, now 24, was arrested in 2001, just after he arrived in the capital, Abuja, his family say.

He was tortured and shot in the leg by police in an attempt to force him to confess to armed robbery, he says.

A year later his parents say that they were told Mr Nwaokporo was dead and did not know he was still being held.

The Nigerian police have been the subject of several reports by international human rights organisations who say they are guilty of arbitrary imprisonment, summarily executing detainees and routine torture.

Vagrant

Mr Nwaokporo's parents say their son travelled from the south-eastern city of Onitsha to Abuja to find work in 2001.


They told me he was dead, and I thought there was nothing I could do, so I went home

Peter Nwaokporo, Ugochukwu's father

Speaking for the first time since his release, Mr Nwaokporo told the BBC News website that he had arrived in a remote area of the capital at night and decided to stay in the motor park where his bus had dropped him.

A group of police officers were rounding up vagrants and they arrested him.

While in police custody, he was blindfolded, beaten and led out on to a piece of waste ground where he believed the police would kill him, he says.

The officers shot him in the leg.

"They told me if I confessed they would take me to a hospital. But I did not."

He treated his own wound with medical supplies brought to him by church groups who visited the police station cells where he was held.

But the first time he cleaned the wound it was with his own urine, his lawyer told the court.

Sometimes I lost myself I was so afraid

Ugochukwu Nwaokporo

His leg is now withered and almost useless, the bullet has broken the bone and it has not healed properly.

His father, a civil servant from Ebonyi State, was told of his son's arrest by one of the church groups who visited the jail.

He came to Abuja regularly to beg for his son's release, but was brushed off every time.

Then in 2002 the family was told their son's name had been scrubbed off the list of inmates at the jail.

"They told me he was dead, and I thought there was nothing I could do, so I went home," Peter Nwaokporo told the BBC.

'The president'

Ugochukwu Nwaokporo says that he was held in a cell in an Abuja police station for the whole seven years of his detention.


Ugochukwu Nwaokporo was helped from court as his leg is now withered


He was known among police officers as "the president" of the jail because he had been there so long, and some of them tried to help him, he says.

But while there, he heard police summarily execute several armed robbery suspects.

"Sometimes I lost myself I was so afraid," he told the BBC.

In 2006, the police tried to bring charges of armed robbery against Mr Nwaokporo in the High Court.

The case was delayed several times in Nigeria's tortuously slow legal system until 2008.

It was picked up by Nigeria's Legal Aid Council who appointed Mr Nwaokporo a lawyer.

They didn't have anything on him, so they threw him back in jail perhaps hoping he would die

Lawyer Nnaemeka Ejiofor

"They have not brought him to court in seven years to enter a plea. They want to keep him in prison as long as they can," his lawyer Nnaemeka Ejiofor said.

"When they arrested him, they didn't have anything on him, so they put him back in jail thinking that perhaps he would die. But by the grace of God he did not."

Because of a misunderstanding, his family were not notified that their son was alive until last month.

Trial

He was bailed for $4,000 (£2,000) on Wednesday by a member of a church group helping his case.

He still faces trial on armed robbery, conspiracy and weapons charges.

But the robbery the police say he committed took place two months after Mr Nwaokporo says he was taken into custody.

"In Nigeria, if you do not have money, you cannot buy someone to maintain for you," his father said.

"The police should be protecting the citizens but they're victimising them."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7388599.stm

Go and organize a million man/woman march in Nigeria and the whole of Africa like most Nigerians are doing in their backyards or have been plannig to do for the past 20 years with the British Met Police and British Airways.  Or is it only foreign countries you can petition against maltreatment?

Spermdrops:

Go and organize a million man/woman march in Nigeria and the whole of Africa like most Nigerians are have been plannig to do with the British Met Police and British Airways. Or is it only foreign countries you can petition against maltreatment?

Foreign Police means Foreign Currency.

Naija Police no dey Compensate, abi u no Know?

This is very sad.

But we must put our head up. Every problem have solution

Our police must not be FORCED BASED it must have high intelligence gathering.

Nigeria should have a police service not a police force.

We must have state police
local government police
and we should have a federal police Management and intelligence center

The rules will be made by federal police management and intelligence Center

This is just appalling!
I hope the relevant authorities have read the news.

Is that all you guys can write? Why is no one starting a petition?  Toothless bulldogs! If is is British Met Police or British Airways, you all will open your filthy traps to talk rubbish.

See maltreatment now right in front of your stuffed nostrils and all must of you can do is fart from your mouths, while you speak from your constipated rear ends.  Go and make noise in Nigeria let those MOFOS slap you silly with rotten beans filled with magggots!

Shame!!!!!

Is it not amazing that it is BBC news that carried the story?  Where are your Nigerian Newspapers to report such things?  You better start apologizing to the British. This your brother would have rotted in a shallow grave!  At least the "deportee" you all are stuggling to protect is safe and sound in his/her village eating amala/akpu and tuwo combined without soup or water to wash the lumps down!

Look at the handsome boy with dread locks? What the hell was he going to do in Abuja?  That would teach most of you who decide to sell your own birth rights within your own country to stay in your own home states instead of going to clean God's great law toilets for some chump change!  Can't you find employment in your own states?  Always running to Minna or Abuja to be "Abacha boys and girls" looking for contracts you can't afford to improvise in your own states!!!

Lesson for all of you especially in the South South.  Stay away from those territories.  If you ever disappear, no one will ever find you.  Always stay close to home!

Abuja is not Mecca or Jerusalem for Nigerian youths! Build you own states! Lazy things! Army you will not join, school you will not go, marry you will not marry, born you will not born. Only to troop to Abuja to be a Maurice Iwu manipulating elections or a Mike Okiro to cover up looters!

How won't you get kidnapped and shot?

Oles!

http://saharareporters.com/www/news/detail/?id=592

UBA $15 million Fine:How Charles Soludo Laundered CBN/AFC funds through the UBA New York Branch

Last View on Thu 8th May, 2008
Last Modified on Wed 30th April, 2008 4:16:00 pm
Author: Posted by Admin Sahara
Saharareporters, New York

Saharareporters has confirmed from US government investigators that the United Bank of Africa (UBA), was fined $15 million for failure to report suspicious transactions to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) due to huge money transfers from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The penalty against the New York Branch of United Bank for Africa, PLC for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) was as a result of the deposit made by Charles Soludo, the current governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria into the accounts of the UBA branch in New York.

“The money was assessed to be close to $300 million”, according to one of the investigators who spoke anonymously to Saharareporters. Sources told our reporters the money was used in short term investments in New York for businesses that were unrelated with that of the stated mission of AFC and the proceeds might have gone into private bank accounts.

Further inquiries shows that the transaction came directly from the Central bank account of the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) of which Soludo is Chairman while Tony Elumelu , the managing director of the United bank of Africa is a director. Other directors of the African Finance Corporation (AFC) include major bank CEOs and Nigeria’s so-called “economic prime movers” that benefited largely from financial scams packaged as “economic reforms” by the Obasanjo regime.

Charles Soludo, Tony Elumelu (UBA), Jim Ovia (Zenith), Aliko Dangote, Femi Otedola and Cecilia Ibru are all directors of the board of the African Finance Corporation (AFC). These banks are supposed to be under the supervision of the Central Bank of Nigeria.


Two days ago the US authorities announced the assessment of concurrent civil money penalties of $15 million, against the New York Branch of United Bank for Africa, PLC for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). The UBA has already made a single payment of $15 million to the US. Department of the Treasury.

In what appears to be a continuation of trouble for the UBA branch in New York, US authorities told Saharareporters that they have detected another suspicious transaction of $200 million into the UBA New York branch account in March 2008, the monies were traced to the CBN /AFC account in Nigeria.

In July 2007 the UBA entered into an agreement with the US Department of Justice to settle civil and criminal liabilities of money laundering of fraud proceeds discovered between 2000 and 2004 through accounts held at UBA, including that of a company named Zamora.

US authorities told Saharareporters that the recent fines by the OCC and FinCEN are totally unrelated to the July 2007 agreement with the US department of Justice in which the UBA also forfeited $5 million. The July 2007 settlement did not preclude possible criminal prosecution of UBA for tax evasion.

All most of you can become is a first class crook with a third class or pass result!

Petition this too.

Is this not maltreatment of the Nigerian economy?  See the US has exposed your 419 Governor of CBN?  When you have greater problems in Nigeria, you are pointing your 10 fingers and toes to others if indeed all the digits are complete!

Go and sleep on this! Let me go and look for more to keep you guys re-focused on what you should be thinking about.

Spermdrops,

Who is fighting you? Why are you being so aggressive? Life is very simple man. Don't let nairaland increase your high blood pressure. Can't you put your point through to the house intelligently. Wisdom is rear, your aggressiveness will not get you anywhere.

Jamco45:

Spermdrops,

Who is fighting you? Why are you been so aggressive? Life is very simple man. Don't let nairaland increase your high blood pressure. Can't you put your point through to the house intelligently. Wisdom is rear your aggressiveness will not get you anywhere.

Is now about "Spermy"?  Please face the topic! I just thought I should help you with people you should be "carrying placard" and "petitioning" against. Just incase you had no idea. I am tired of reading falsehoods about Nigeria. It is time to tell ourselves the real truths incase some of you missed it. Since all our "relatives" are guilty in one form or the other.

Fighting? You never see fight! Stay tuned.

I knew Soludo was up to something fishy.

the police force know what to do and how to do their jobs,the problem the rank and files have is what a lot of nigerians have which is dissillusionment,they are poorly paid,some live in the police stations because they have not been allocated suitable living,their morales low and politicians and prominent people who have a vested interest are making sure the finger printing and other intelligence gathering will not function,just a couple of weeks/months ago 2 finger print experts in the police hq in lagos were assasinated one was working with the tribunials and the kenny martins police equipment fund rather than addressing these ills went on a spending spree,that is enough for the rank and file to transfer their agression to the normal nigerian who they can easily see/be in contact with