As though coming to battle notorious terrorists and bandits, they came at us with three loaded vehicles convening heavily armed men whose mean demeanor ricks only of lustful desperation for violence and blood. On the other hand, the only arm we had were the ones that acted as support to our revolutionary fists as they pointed to the direction of the cold air with full determination. The rest of our ‘’arms’’ and ‘’battle’’ artillery were placards, banners and our facemasks.
On the night of December 31st, 2020, at about 11 PM, we had gathered at Lokogoma junction and then proceeded to Gudu, Abuja for a CrossOver Protest/sensitization with demands bordering on good governance, respect for citizenship, end to police brutality, environmental justice and a permanent end to insecurity and bloodletting in the country. As of this time, similar actions were ongoing in other parts of Nigeria including certain parts of Lagos, Ondo, Osun, Ogun, Kano, Kaduna, Adamawa, Edo etc.
Our Action at Gudu had been peaceful and without any sort of hiccup until about 1 AM when we were about to leave for our various homes. The government deployed three trucks of anti-riot police, armed to the teeth with apparent resolve to leave behind an ugly scene of death and destruction. Seeing them in such a violent manner with which they invaded our peaceful assembly, a number of protesters understandably ran for their dear lives. Me and a few others like Michael Adenola that had seen them from afar chose to stand our ground as we were not prepared to surrender our country to the rule of tyranny and lawlessness. And like a pack of hungry wolves, they descended on us violently, heating us repeatedly with their guns even as torrents of heavy punches continuously landed on different parts of our bodies. We were bundled to the trunk of one of their trucks and chained to the vehicle like hardened criminals. It was the gory sight of our dehumanizing brutalization that caught the attention of Omoyele Sowore, Nigeria’s foremost revolutionary and investigative journalist who currently faces the charge of treasonable felony for protesting the tyranny, corruption and maladministration of the regime. Sowore all through our procession had been filming our action and made way to his vehicle when it was apparent that we were rounding up. He had to step down from his vehicle to challenge the bloodthirsty and husky looking security operatives. Sighting him, they also descended on him with such fury that made it apparent they had a score to settle with him. They broke his nose and hurled him into the truck with us. As if that was not enough, they sprayed directly on our eyes and faces, a very pepperish chemical substance that made even breathing very difficult. When I managed to challenge this unruly wickedness despite being chained down, one of the officers held me and the other started spraying this substance directly into my eyes and did not stop despite seeing how I struggled to grasp for breath. The pain was so intense that I could barely open my eyes for about two hours and my entire body felt so hot for more than four days.
The Buhari regime is generally popular for his lack of respect for civil rights and rule of law. His notoriety and uncommon penchant for rights violation were such that Punch Newspaper, a foremost Nigerian paper resolved in December 2019 to henceforth regard Buhari as Major General Buhari as against President Buhari, in all of its publication. Despite his infamous track records, a lot of us had thought the President was at least going to make the first of January, an exception, to at least indulge Nigerians in the freedom he had denied and violently attacked over the past 365 days. And as it turned out, we expected too much from a regime that has consciously expunged democratic creeds from his dictionary of governance.
From Gudu, we were moved to the detention facility of the Special Antirobbery Squad (SARS) at a police station called abattoir. This detention facility was notorious for torturing and killing its victims. Upon our arrival, the station officer, a SARS operative, led his junior colleagues to unleash on us more beatings and we were dragged into the cell like common criminals. The only warm reception we received was from other inmates who accorded us great regard and couldn’t stop talking about how greatly they appreciate our relentless struggles for the soul of our country. They went out of their way to get us mats and blankets with which to relax and rest our weakened joints. A number of these inmates were kept illegally in custody without being charged to court. For the next 3 days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were caged like animals in a cell within the cell and this was our abode till Monday when we were moved to court. We were in the first instance denied access to our lawyers, families and friends. And quite unusually, we were also denied access to our books. Upon granting us access to our lawyers after mass uproar, we had to declare a hunger strike in detention before they were pressured into allowing us access to our books. According to our lawyer, Abubakar Mashal, reports of our hunger strike caught the attention of the public and the uproar that followed forced the police commissioner into calling our lawyer at the early hours of 4 AM. The commissioner appealed to Marshal to come to our detention facility and avail us our books which they had initially denied us.
When we were being moved to court on Monday morning, we were prepared for all theatrics the government had cooked up to keep us in detention for as long as possible, hence, we were prepared for the worst. So that we were not caught off guard when the magistrate court, sitting at Wuse 2, Abuja, denied us bail, remanded us at Kuje Prison and impressed that our lawyer instead filed a written bail application. Prior to the pronouncement of our remand in prison, the police refused us phones to speak to our lawyers and arranged a team of five lawyers posing as human rights lawyers. The plan was to have those lawyers hoodwink us into taking up our defense in the absence of our lawyer and then use these so-called human rights lawyers to keep us in detention for as long as possible. When they approached us in court, we immediately told them off. Without the presence of our lawyer, the court session commenced and the prosecuting team announced appearances. When the magistrate, Mabel Segun Bello, called for appearance of the defense, the arranged lawyers whom we have told off attempted to announce appearance on our behalf but were immediately interrupted by Sowore who informed the court that the lawyers had no permission to represent us and lamented how we were denied access to our lawyers when we were being brought down to the court. The exchange between Sowore and the prosecuting team continued until the magistrate decided to adjourn for 10 minutes. By the time the magistrate returned to her seat, our lawyer was now in court. The disappointment in the face of the police prosecutors was so obvious. The arrival of our lawyer anyway did not stop them from achieving their devious aim of keeping us in detention. However, they would have been opportuned to keep us far longer if their game of imposing lawyers on us had worked. With our lawyers in court, we were able to take a plea on trumped-up charges bordering on “unlawful assembly”, “incitement” and “criminal conspiracy.” However, they would have been opportuned to keep us far longer if their game of imposing lawyers on us had worked.
The road to Kuje was terribly bad and extremely tiring. The roads were so bad and highly discomforting to the extent that the police who were taking us to the prison complained very bitterly and relentlessly too. I had to immediately remind them how they would have shot at protesters if residents of Kuje had come out to protest bad roads. In fairness however to most of the Junior officers in the police, it was clear to us that a number of them sympathize with our struggles but lack the courage to turn their guns against the real oppressors of our mutual interest.
When we arrived at Kuje Prison, the prison officials professionally told the police delegation that brought us that they had stopped accepting inmates due to COVID-19 and that their isolation facility is equally unavailable at the moment. Desperate to keep us in Prison, calls began jamming calls. From the police commissioner to the IG to numerous power brokers at the higher ups until a phone directive came to the prison controller who had to drive all the way from his home down to the prison. Sowore during the period of the wait told the police delegation that ‘’if the Police Commissioner was so desperate about keeping us in detention, he can as well keep us in his house where he will volunteer as a teacher to his children and lecture his wards how not to be a lawless public officer like their father.’’
We were at last admitted into the Prison and each of us dumped in solitary confinement. The prison confinement we were dumped looked like the ones reserved for persons on a death roll, but the prison warders called it a ‘’COVID-19 isolation facility.’’ We were denied access to doctors, food and our books throughout the night of our stay in prison. The following morning, 5th of January, when we were processed and returned to court for a bail application hearing, information of our presence, especially that of Sowore had become popular amongst prison inmates such that the Niger Delta activists among them were seen struggling to come towards us but were sternly repelled by the prison warders.
Like criminals, we were handcuffed and hurled into the prison’s blackmaria that would be convening us to court. Stepping out of the blackmaria with cuffs in our hands infuriated the mass of Nigerians who had come to court to show us solidarity. Our lawyers did not take it easy either as they immediately demanded the removal of the cuffs. As the court session began anew, the Magistrate, Mabel failed again to grant our prayers for a bail after our application met vehement opposition from the police prosecutors. The magistrate then ordered that we should be remanded at the Police Force Criminal Investigation Department till Friday, 8th of January when she would then give a ruling on our bail application. In her ruling, she included a caveat allowing us access to medical attention, our books and upon Sowore’s request, made a special order to avail Adenola Michael, a level 3 law student, internet facility with which to participate in his classes which had commenced online on 4th of January. But of course, the police had no internet facility, neither did they have any decent hospital or detention facility.
Upon our arrival at the Force CID, we were immediately processed and hauled into our cell. Just like abattoir, our first detention center, we were locked up in a ‘’cage within a cage’’. The Police officers before our arrival had warned all inmates to steer clear of our cell and not canvas with us. This apparently was to prevent us from radicalizing the rest of the inmates. And just like we had it at our previous detention centers, we also had great support from the other cell mates. Despite restrictions warning the rest of the cell mates to steer clear from our own cell, a number of them still took turns in confiding in us, several injustices they have had to endure in detention, including how poorly they are fed and how a number of them have been denied access to lawyers and their families. Of the numerous cases, one caught our special attention. And it was the case of one Solomon Akuma, a pharmacist who had been remanded since April, 2020, for anti-Buhari twitter comments. The Pharmacist faces charges of treasonable felony, amongst many other charges. And while in detention, the government had done all they could to demoralize him. He was tortured into making a self indicating “confessional statement with the police’’, denied access to lawyer, family and told by police to plead guilty to ‘’criminal charges’’ they had forced him into admitting in a ‘’confessional statement.’’ Despite this, Akuma Solomon remains unbroken.
On the morning of Friday, 8th January, 2021, at about 8 AM, the police PPRO had come to our cell to inform us about our movement to court by 9 AM as ordered by the magistrate. Seconds became minutes, and minutes became hours, until about 10 AM, we were still in our cell and it wasn’t looking as though the police were prepared to comply with the orders of the court. Out of nowhere, one of the police officers stationed to our cell showed up. He said to Sowore, ‘’Leader, your attention is needed. Once Sowore stepped out, I had asked our comrades to also get ready in the hope that Sowore’s invitation was about our movement to the court. Once Sowore got back, I laughed uncontrollably at myself when I realized the persons who Sowore’s attention was called on were comrades who helped bring us food, water and other necessities. The summary is that, again the government proved its capacity and penchant for lawlessness with the flagrant disregard of a court order. Worthy of note is that prior to now, the Buhari Junta has violated over 40 court orders. One of such orders is one that granted bail to the Shiite leader, Sheik El ZakZaky and despite several court orders ordering his release, General Buhari has illegally held the Sheik since 2015. The police however weren’t the only culprit of this episode. Upon realizing the wretched game the police were playing, our lawyer went to court with the hope that the magistrate was going to sit as ordered. The court did not only fail to sit, the magistrate told our lawyer she wouldn’t sit unless we were produced in court. Meanwhile, the magistrate could have still ensured the court seats as ordered and at least made a pronouncement on bail. It was also within the constitutional powers of the magistrate to move the court to the police headquarters where we were detained and still make a pronouncement that must force the police into immediate compliance. She failed to do any of this and consciously helped police violate the orders of her own court.
Failing to produce us in court on Friday, we were forced to spend the next three days in the mosquito-infested and shitty detention facility. The wait wasn’t so bad though as it availed us the opportunity to meet certain new inmates who had been transferred from Abattoir, our first detention center before Kuje Prison. They informed us of how the abattoir police immediately freed/charged over 40 inmates who had been illegally detained. According to them, the police feared we may expose this illegality on their part once we get out.
On Sunday, one of the inmates informed us that we will definitely leave detention on Monday and that he learnt that people were coming to protest at the Force CID. We became very certain that the police, fearing protest, had furnished the inmate closest to us with this information with the certainty that he would get us informed in the hope that someway, we’ll be able to communicate with ‘’our people’’ on the outside not to protest on Monday. Hence, it was the fear of a Monday Protest that influenced their decision to take us to court on Monday. We arrived at the court to the cheer of a mass of highly resilient Nigerians who have begun staging protests in front of the court building.
Entering into Magistrate Mabel’s court, the session as usual started with the prosecution and defense announcing appearances before the magistrate went into a long read of very verbose and deceitful ruling. Her ruling announced bail conditions that were no doubt not only vindictive and stringent but also that the court had preempted guilt before trial. One of the bail conditions ordered our restriction to Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria. Aside from the general bail conditions, Sowore was also ordered by the court to henceforth make a registered presence at the office of the registrar of the FCT high court every Monday and Friday.
Generally, the whole point to our brutalizations, arrest and 11-day detention at three different prison and detention facilities respectively was to discourage and punish our resolve to mobilize Nigerians in the line of social revolution that places public wealth into the hands and control of ordinary people. Alas, we have long surpassed the stage of fear into the realm of determination and courage, heading to the destination of freedom. And like the words of Leon Trotsky, the late Russian Revolutionary, ‘’We will not concede this Revolutionary banner to the masters of oppression and falsehood! If our generation happens to be too weak to establish a Revolution, we will hand the spotless banner down to the next generation. The struggle which is in the offing transcends by far the importance of individuals, factions, and parties. It is the struggle for the future of our country. It will be severe. It will be lengthy. Whoever seeks physical comfort and spiritual calm, let him step aside. Neither threats, nor persecutions, nor violations can stop us! Be it even over our bleaching bones, the truth will triumph! We will blaze the trail for it. It will conquer! Under all the severe blows of fate, I shall be happy, as in the best days of my youth! Because, friends, the highest human happiness is not the exploitation of the present but the preparation of the future.