David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka
The wife of a victim of Special Anti-Robbery Squad’s (SARS) brutality, Mrs. Chidinmma Precious Edozieuno, has recounted to the Anambra Judicial Panel (AJP) on the activities of the SARS how men of the squad took away her husband in 2017 and told her to kiss him goodbye.
Edozieuno, who petitioned the panel and appeared for testimony, prayed the panel to give her reasonable compensation for the loss of her husband and properties.
She told journalists in an interview that her husband, a businessman who lived in Benin Republic, Mr. Johnson Edozienu, had returned to Nigeria to visit her and her newborn baby when he was taken away by the SARS officials.
“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.
“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.
She said that items collected from her home included a refrigerator, television set, 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.
The Chairman of the AJ, Justice V.N. Umeh (rtd) however assured Edozieuno that the panel would investigate and make recommendations on her matter.
