THE eight-man panel led by Ifiok Ukana, a retired justice on Monday stated that a total number of 92 petitions were submitted before the Panel of Inquiry on Police Brutality in Akwa Ibom State.
Appearing before the panel, Obong Paul Etim Ekpo, a 73–year old resident of Ikot Ambon in Ibesikpo Local Government Area of the state narrated before the panel how the police denied him access to his hypertensive drugs, while he was being unlawfully detained for three days over a land dispute.
Ekpo said he was arrested together with his 21-year-old son, on the orders of Eventus Etim Ekpo, a Police Inspector attached to Ibesikpo Police Station.
He said Ekpo facilitated his arrest over a land dispute he had with him, adding that he was later falsely detained over a fictitious charge of kidnapping.
“At about 9 pm on October 18, 2014, I and my son, Destiny Paul Ekpo, were arrested by a team of five policemen. We were taken to the Police Headquarters, Ikot Akpan Abia and detained there,” Ekpo recounted.
“They accused us of kidnapping the Inspector’s wife, Mrs. Glory Etim Ekpo, when in reality nothing of such ever happened.”
Ekpo also told the panel that the police deprived him of his personal liberty and subjected him to dehumanizing conditions, despite his hypertensive condition
“From that Friday, October 18, 2014, when we were arrested till Monday, October 21, 2014, the police kept me outside throughout. While my son was lucky to be detained in the cell, I was stripped of my clothes and left out in the rain and cold for three days, without committing any crime,” he said.
“The police also deprived me of access to my hypertensive drugs, food and any means to contact my family.”
Ekpo, however, asked the panel to bring the police officer, his wife Glory, and the policemen who arrested and unlawfully detained him, to justice.
Seven other petitions were also presented for hearing were adjourned to November 23, to enable the panel to serve the summons on the parties against whom allegations were made in the petitions.
'Niyi worked with The ICIR as an Investigative Reporter and Fact-checker from 2020 till September 2022. You can shoot him an email via [email protected]. You can as well follow him on Twitter via @niyi_oyedeji.