Judiciary
Rivers State Commission of Inquiry: Petitioner Demands N200m Compensation For Friend’s Death
By Anele Achulike
Fubara Briggs, 72, has told the panel of inquiry sitting in
Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, to hear cases of alleged
police brutality, particularly as it concerned the disbanded Special
Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), that his friend, Monday Burabari allegedly
took ill and died after he was tortured by policemen at the Borikiri
Police Division, Port Harcourt.
Consequently, Briggs is demanding the sum of N200m from the Nigerian
Agip Oil Company (NAOC) where his late friend worked as Spy Police.
Briggs said he was the Chairman of Spy Police in NAOC where his late
friend also worked, saying that both of them challenged the
ill-treatment meted out on them by their superiors after the exit of
the white people who created that department to empower host
communities.
He said: “This Monday Burabari was of the same mind with me and we
decided to resist them. We wrote petitions, we challenged management
but finally, when they were able to walk me out on age basis.
“They invited Monday Burabari for a petition that was written years
ago. So, they tried him with police officers from Borikiri. How can
police officers from Borikiri come to try somebody in Agip base?
“After the torture that day, the man challenged them that the police
office is not supposed to try him because there are documents from the
Inspector General of Police telling us the status of the spy police
and the Nigeria Police Force.
“When Monday challenged him that he has no power to try him, he
ordered Monday to be brutalized. That was in 2012. From that day,
Monday started getting sick. They retained him to work until 2015 when
he wrote another petition against corruption.
“Then, they had to lay him off. When they lay him off, he could not
finance his health issues because he was complaining of chest problem.
They sacked him and the problems became worse. That day they detained
him, there was no medical attention, no food.
“So, it aggravated the illness. The son called me one morning that my
friend is dead”, Briggs explained, alleging that police aggravated his
illness that led to his death.
“So, I want this panel to compel Agip to pay his family N200 million
as compensation because they (diseased) are suffering. You can see
none of them are here because they don’t have transport”, he
maintained.
Another victim of Police brutality, Osuagu, has to the Justice
Chukwunenye Uriri-led Judicial Commission of Inquiry sitting at Obi
Wali International Conference Centre, Port Harcourt, how he lost his
legs and job and now suffering partial memory loss after he was
allegedly attacked by operatives of the defunct SARS.
Osuagu said over two years after the incident, the operatives never
told him why he was attacked and arrested.
He recalled that the incident happened on January 18, 2018, at No. 4,
Blessed Young Beke Close, off Chibaik Avenue, Elioparanwo in Port
Harcourt.
He said the SARS operatives swooped on him like armed robbers and he
made an unsuccessful attempt to run for his life.
“On that day I was attacked, I thought it was armed robbers. So, I ran
into the ceiling of a two storey building in a bid to escape. They
followed me into the ceiling and in the process, I fell from that
height. They carried me and took me to their station.
“That resulted in me not being able to walk well till now. I suffer
partial loss of memory and stiff neck as well. Till today, I don’t
know why I was attacked like that”, the victim narrated.
Osuagu stated that it was only after a superior SARS officer saw his
condition and ordered that he should be sent to the hospital that he
was moved and abandoned without an explanation on why he was arrested.
He appealed to the Commission to prevail on the authorities to pay me
a compensation of N100 million to cushion the effects of his
predicament.
“No amount of money will be equivalent to what I am going through,
they should award the sum of N100 million to me to cushion the effects
of this predicament”, Osuagu demanded.
