VANGUARD
By Alemma Aliu
In 2013, 32-years-old Frank Mekwunye, a native of Utor Okpo in Ika North-East Local Government Area of Delta State was returning from Benin to Lagos in the company of two friends, Chinonso and Emmanuel when the bus they boarded was flagged down by a police checkpoint at Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.
After inspection, the policemen claimed the bus was stolen. They arrested the driver of the bus, Mekwunye and his friends.
The driver and his bus were later released while Mekwunye and his friends, who refused to give a bribe were detained for ‘armed robbery.
Chinonso and Emmanuel were shot dead while in detention by the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS. Mekwunye was charged with armed robbery.
For nine years, Mekwunye languished in prison until last December when he was set free by the court after the key police witnesses in his trial died. In this chat, Mekwunye narrates Encounter, his cruel torture at SARS ‘theatres’, how he was made to carry the corpses of his friends shot by the police and his ordeals in prison.
Background
My name is Frank Mekwunye, I am 32 years and from Utor Okpu Kingdom in Ika North-East Local Government Area of Delta State. Before now, I was living with my parents at 11 Oyowele Adegboye Street, Ikorodu, Lagos State. I was also a final-year student of Mass Communication, at Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu Campus, and a student member of the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations, NIPR, Eko chapter.
While in school, I was a member of the Kegites Club. On June 2, 2013, I received a phone call from a chief in my club that one of our members at the University of Benin was shot on campus.
I immediately arranged for a trip to Benin for the candlelight, which took place on June 3. While coming back the following day with two friends I met at the event, Okpalanta Chinonso and Emmanuel whose surname I can’t remember now, we stopped at Ijebu Ode to take another vehicle to Ikorodu.
Arrest
When we got to Itokin Bridge along the Ikorodu axis of the road, we met some policemen who stopped the Toyota Hiace bus we boarded. They asked the driver some questions and after inspecting the bus, they claimed that it was a stolen vehicle. We were arrested and taken to Ikosi Police Station in Agbonwa. After two days, the driver was released on bail and he went home with his bus.
The DPO at the station said we should call our people so that they can come and bail us but we said on what condition were they going to bail when the driver of the alleged stolen vehicle had been released with his vehicle. He said we were proving stubborn and the next day, he transferred the case to Shagamu Road Police Station.
