After you had been discharged and acquitted, as you rightly said, and you were still being held in prison, did they relax the sanctions on you? Were you allowed more freedom than before? Essentially no. Those discharged and acquitted were still held in handcuffs and leg irons.Any relaxation you got at all was either on individual basis or on the discretion of the people guarding you. Both the discharged and acquitted and the convicted were still held inthe same wards and rooms, as we were before the judgment,in wards C, D, J and a fourth one.In my own cell, to my right was Colonel Bako who was convicted- actually all the detaineessurrounding me in WardC were those convicted. They were with me from April 28 to about June 8 when they were eventually taken away with [General] Diya. So, I was in the company of those people who were convicted - Engineer Adebanjowasin Cell 2, Niran Malaolu (your fellow journalist) was in Cell 3,Colonel Bako was in Cell 4 and I was in Cell 5. Upstairs, we had Major-General Olanrewaju,Major Mohammed, DSP Adebowale and Ibrahim Kotangora.
We have heard alot about your experience in prison but we shall come back to that later.Meanwhile can you recount theday of your arrest? How did it happen? Oh yes it was a fateful day in the sense that I had got my family together to travel for Christmas.Already I had applied for leave to last from Monday, December22 tillJanuary5. I had borroweda pick-up van from a friend tocarry yams, rice andotheritemsto my hometown for theChristmas celebration. It was expected to be a special one for me and my family because barely a week before the proposed commencement of my leave, we (the CGS [i.e.,General Oladipo Diya's] entourage) had just escaped what looked like an assassination attempt through a bomb blast at the Abuja airport.My family was looking forward to having a thanksgiving dinner for friends and well-wishers on December 25. Thus everybodyhad packed and was ready to leave Abuja for Ilesa the following day. At about 3.30a.m., I was feeling tired and decidedto have a nap and wake up at 6.30a.m. or there abouts ... It couldn't have been more than forty minutes after I decided to sleep when my wife tapped me and shouted, "Femi, Femi,Femi,what's that noise about?" So, Igot up and looked through the window and saw people with guns. They were not in army uniforms, rather they were in jeans and T-Shirts and fez caps with machine guns. I was thrown into a panicky situation because I didn't know what to do. I was hearing heavy footsteps and the whole place was soon turned into a bedlam.And here I was in a khaftan-like night dress without underpants!I started lookingfor something to wear but meanwhile it waslike I didn't know exactly what to do. I was just walking up and down and I was hearing noises.Soon Iwas telling my wife, "Goto the bathroom, go inside thebathroom."Before I could even finish telling her that, I just heard this heavy bang onthedoor and the cocking of gunswith the warning: "If I count three and you don't open, I'll shoot!" I said, "Wait, I'm coming, I'm opening thedoor."By thistime I had been able to lay myhands on something, this boxer short [pants] to wear. The next thing I heard waswham! I was slapped with the side of the machine gun. I was almost unconscious. I startedasking:"Why? Why? Why are you beating me?" The next thing I received was another blow to my face. By the time I was led tothe sitting room, my children had been lined up like areception committee (for me).By that time, I had a cut on my lips and another on my head. I was bleeding like a punch-drunk boxer. On my way downstairs, I saw somebody in handcuffs who later turned out to be the ADC to General Diya. Apparently, if I may rewind the tape (ofevents) for you, as I gatheredseven months later, it was the ADC, Major Kayode Keshinrowho was picked up from hishouse and asked toleadtheteam to my house. As I laterlearnt, he was picked up almostin asimilarcircumstance but he was allowed to dress up and was not beaten like me.I needto stress this point because minewas a special treatment. They kicked me, slapped me, shovedand pushed me like a criminal. I suddenly regressed into childhood because I had never received that kind of beating in my life before. Somebody just comes into your house, he is not telling you that you are underarrest, not informing you aboutany crimecommitted,just started beating you up andbanging your head withmachine gun. I was literally thrown down the staircase infront of my children. I can remember one of my children telling me after my release: "Daddy, I know you to be a strong man. I have never seen fear in your eyes in my life. But thatday I saw fear in your eyes." It's as bad as that. My children saw their father being battered and there was nothing they could do. It was so uncivilised.
No comments:
Post a Comment