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"They Should Have Shot You" An Account of Issac Osuoka's 32 Days of Detention, Presented at a Press Conference Organized by Environmental Rights Action (Friends of the Earth, Nigeria) in Lagos, June 30, 1988 This is an account of my recent detention for a month and two days at two different police cells in Lagos without charge and without trial. My captors-agents of the ruling generals and their civilian collaborators- decided to release me in the night of Friday, June 26. After holding me unjustly for 32 days, I was practically thrown into the streets of Lagos without any transport fare. This was in no way a unique experience as three of my comrades, namely: Adewale Balogun, Dalandi Abdulsalam and Muritala Rahman also suffered the same punishment. The four of us, that is : Adewale, Danladi, fourteen year old Muritala and I had been bundled out of our notorious Area F Detention Centre of the Lagos State Police command, Ikeja in the early hours of that Friday . We were thereafter taken by plain clothed security men to the Lagos State police headquarters, Ikeja. At that place, we were just dumped in a room and abandoned, without any explanation as to what they intended to do with us. Several hours later, when the day was already dark, a man came to inform us that we were free to go to our respective homes. My three comrades were brought to Area F a few days after I was taken there with my attorney, Mr Bamidele Aturu on May 29. Aturu who was later released on June 8 was held for performing his professional duties - attempting to secure a bail for me. Adewale, Danladi and Muritala had been arrested for allegedly being in possession of leaflets and posters denouncing the Nigerian military dictatorship and calling on the Nigerian people at liberate themselves, and their country from the neo-colonial, neo-feudal forces of reaction. The materials were produced by the opposition coalition United Action For Democracy. I was arrested in Lagos on the night of May 26 ,1998 along with my Dutch friend and colleague Mr Aart van den Hoek ( co-ordinator Oil Watch Europe) by a team of Policemen and soldiers who searched our taxi and discovered copies of NIGER DELTA ALERT, the monthly bulletin published by the Delta Information Service project of the Environmental Rights Action (ERA) and other reports exposing the environmental and human rights abuses being committed daily by the multinational oil companies especially Shell and the military in the oil- rich Niger Delta. I also had on me posters calling on the Nigerian people to resist the desperate attempt by the late paranoid dictator General Sani Abacha to transform into a civilian president this October. The posters were produced by the opposition Democratic Alternative(DA) of which I am a member. Aart and I were immediately arrested and taken to the Surulere Police Station, Barracks
Bus-stop, near Ojuelegba, Lagos. There, a fight almost broke out between policemen who
argued that we be freed because they support our struggles for justice and the soldiers
who insisted that they must do their job. Meaning supporting the oppression of the
Nigerian people consciously or unconsciously. According to the soldiers, the materials on
me were seditious - a charge which is no longer in Nigeria's stature books. In the end ,
our supporters lost out Aart was released the next day and he immediately rushed to inform my colleagues who were participating in a continental meeting of groups involved in sustainable forest management. I had left my base in the Niger Delta for Lagos to participate in the same programme. Four days after my detention, my lawyer-friend whom ERA contacted to intervene in my case was also arrested by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the Surulere Police station. In the DPO's judgement, Aturu must know something about the materials in my possession. The DPO then ordered that we be chained and taken to the police commissioner of Lagos State, the notorious Alhaji Abubakar Tsav. When we were brought before the commissioner he asked the DPO why the soldiers who arrested me did not shoot me. Looking at the me from the head to the toe he said "They should have shot you". On his orders, we were transferred to the dreaded "Area F" detention centre where we were dumped into a crowded cell housing an average of forty inmates. Without any formal charge or trial we were detained in the "German cell", a corner of which also serves as a toilet. Inmates defecate on old newspapers and throw into a drum in the corner. We slept on the concrete floor, which was wet most of the time We sleep in turns as there is not enough space to go round. Without sanitation, mosquitoes feasted on us and malaria is a common ailment. But there are no medicines or medical attention. Some concoction they call food is given to the detainees once a week. On other days detainees are on their own. Those without pocket money from family and friends starve, and some die. Not all the detainees die of hunger or malaria, some others are tortured to death, while being forced to say "the truth". Even without trial the police shoot and kill suspected armed robbers. The guards call them out in the mornings, before day-break. And only the sound of gunshots will report to detainees that another life has been wasted. For those of us whose cells are below the torture room, sleep was difficult as our nights were punctuated by the cries of suspects being tortured. It is more difficult when you recognise the cries as those of a fellow cell-mate. You can't help thinking that it might be your turn next. I cannot say all I experienced in "Area F" now that I am out. After 32 days in illegal detention for my concern for environmental justice and a democratic Nigeria, I have come out to meet what might be misconstrued as a new reality. Abacha is dead and another soldier is in charge, releasing political detainees and calling for national reconciliation. We know, however, that there is little to cheer about. In the long run, any real advance for democracy and people oriented development can only be guaranteed by the struggle of the people themselves and not by traditional chiefs and political contractors who General Abubakar is consulting with- the same elements who have ruined our country. For us it is, Aluta Continua! Finally, let me seize this opportunity to thank all of you here and your colleague in the various media houses; the environmental and human rights community in Nigeria and abroad and fellow activists for the relentless campaigns waged on my behalf which forced my captors to release me. ISAAC OSUOKA Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club |
