How SARS operatives killed my husband, Woman tells Panel
Mrs Chidimma Edozieuno, a petitioner to the Anambra Judicial Panel of Inquiry on police brutality, has narrated how men of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad took away her husband in 2017 and told her to kiss him goodbye.
Edozieuno, who petitioned the panel and appeared for testimony, said her husband, who lived in Benin Republic, visited Nigeria after she gave birth to a baby and was arrested in the early hours of August 1, 2017 by policemen on mufti at their Ichida Street residence in Awka.
She alleged that her property was taken away to an unknown destination by the operatives, whose operational base was not disclosed to her.
The woman said the operatives alleged that her husband was a kidnapper and she would not see him again.
She said, “We were in our house in Awka that fateful day in August 2017 when some gunmen broke into our house and took my husband. They also took away almost all our household properties and told me to go and marry another man that this one is as good as dead.
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“They said my husband was a kidnapper. I did not even know where they came from, and at first, I didn’t even know they were policemen.
“With the help of a friend, who is a police officer, we started looking for my husband. He took me around many police stations to know if they had him, but none of them had him. We went to Awkuzu SARS office where I saw three of the men who came and arrested my husband.
“I took a lawyer and we went to court. It was in court that the counsel representing the SARS told us that my husband was dead. They said he was a kidnapper. I dated my husband for a long time before we got married. He is not a kidnapper. I lived in Benin and that was where we knew each other. I later relocated to Nigeria. My husband is from Aguleri.”
She said that items collected from her home included a refrigerator, television, a generator set, laptop, iPhone and Wifi.
She also asked that the body of her husband be given to her for burial and compensation for the household items taken from her home.
Chairman of the panel, Justice V.N. Umeh (rtd), however, assured Edozieuno that the panel would investigate and make recommendations on her matter.
