Suspected
billionaire kidnapper, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, alias Evans, has maintained
his allegation that he was tortured by police to make his confessional
statement.
He
countered the claim by the police that his statement was obtained under a fair
atmosphere and that the statement could have been taken in the presence of a
lawyer, if Evans had hired one.
At the
Friday proceedings in his trial before Justice Adedayo Akintoye at the Lagos
State High Court in Igbosere, Evans said human rights lawyer, Mr Femi Falana
(SAN), once came to the police station to meet with him, but the police
prevented the meeting by locking him (Evans) up in a toilet.
Evans said
immediately after he was arrested by the police in 2017, his wife, Uchenna,
contacted the human rights lawyer, but upon the lawyer’s visit to the police
station, he was told that he (Evans) had been taken out for investigation.
Evans
claimed he overheard Falana and the Lagos coordinator of the Inspector-General
of Police Response Team, one CSP Phillip, exchange pleasantries upon the
lawyer’s arrival at Phillip’s office.
He said
after being told that he had been taken out for investigation, Falana warned
the police against claiming that the suspect had been shot while trying to
escape.
Led in
evidence by his lawyer, Mr Olanrewaju Ajanaku, Evans insisted that he was
threatened to put his signature to an already prepared confessional statement
by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad who he accused of murdering several
suspects in his presence “in Saddam Hussein style.”
He said,
“Immediately after my arrest, my wife called Mr Femi Falana and he came to
SARS. But CSP Phillip told two armed policemen to hide me inside the office
toilet and to tell the lawyer that I was not around.
“I heard
Phillip greet him, and Mr Falana said he wanted to see me. CSP Phillip told him
that I had been taken out for investigation.
“Mr Falana
warned him that he did not want to hear that I was trying to escape and then I
was shot dead. He told them that if I had committed any offence, I should be
charged to court.”
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