Alleged kidnap kingpin Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike alias Evans on Friday gave graphic details of how members of Inspector General of Police (IGP) Intelligence Response Team and the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), tortured him and killed 30 people in his presence.

Evans who made the revelation on Friday during the continuation of a trial-within-trial at an Ikeja High Court claimed that the security agents killed the victims by suffocating them with nylon (plastic bags).

The alleged kidnap kingpin is facing trial alongside six others on a two-count charge conspiracy and kidnapping.

Evans while being led in evidence by his lawyer Olanrewaju Ajanaku, described himself as a businessman dealing in haulage and ornaments resident at No. 3, Fred Soyebode Street, Magodo Lagos.

“Inspector Idowu Haruna (member of IGP Intelligence Response Team) took me to Abuja and brought me back to Lagos where I was at the Inspector General (IG) Guest House at Obalende, Lagos.

“Sunny the 2 I/C (second in command) to Abba Kyari, Mr Christian Ugu, Mr Phillip and other police officers working with them were there.

“Idowu Haruna brought about 25 sheets of paper and asked me to sign, that day, my mind told me not to sign because it might be my death warrant.

“One of them, one Mr Phillip put his hand in his pocket and brought out a brown hospital card, he showed it to me and told me to sign it while saying that do you think that we are joking here, he said if anything happens to me here this card covers everything.

“Mr Phillip said the police will not be held responsible and before I knew what was happening, Mr Christian slapped me and that was how they started beating me,” Evans told the court.

“Mr Christian Ugu was smoking, he quenched the cigarette on my hand, My Lord looks at my head where they beat me, My Lord looks at my hand.

“They took me to the backyard of the IG’s guesthouse, I sustained injuries on my head and body and Mr Phillip asked the policemen to walk on me and when I started bleeding, he said you think we are joking here.

“At the backyard, I saw some people that I was paraded with, they were wearing leg chains, some of them had bullet wounds on their legs and Mr Phillip ordered Idowu Haruna to bring a big brown sellotape, handkerchief and polybags.

“Idowu Haruna forced a handkerchief into the mouth of one of them, he used the sellotape to tightly tape his mouth and face and put a polybag over his head and sellotaped it and used another poly bag and sellotaped it for the second time and they left the man on the ground.

“The man on the ground was shaking, he pissed (urinated) on his body, he poo-pooed (defecated) on his body and after a while, he went quiet.

“Idowu Haruna went to the man and stepped on his body and he was unresponsive and he told me can you see I have travelled him.”

Evans told the court that four more persons were executed in the same manner by the police officers in his presence.

“I was brought before them and I started begging asking them what do they want me to do and they told me to co-operate with them and I said okay that I will do anything they wanted me to do.

“Phillip asked them to take me to the house and he asked if I knew the method of killing and I said no, they said that it is called ‘Saddam Hussein.’

“He said that there is no way an autopsy can predict the cause of death of the five people they had just killed and that those people have travelled.”

Evans said after witnessing the execution, the 25 sheets of paper were brought for him to sign by the police.

“After a few minutes they brought the 25 sheets of paper for me and I signed them.

“Some things were written on some of the sheets of paper while some were blank, that was how I was forced to sign the confessional statements,” Evans said.

“I did not know Insp Haruna, Abba Kyari before my arrest in the I am the one in the video, I was cautioned in the video but after the cautionary words, I was forced to sign, Evans said, referring to a five-minute video of his confessions that was played in court.

“The story I told the court was never an afterthought, SARS killed more than 30 people in my presence, the killings took place at the IG guesthouse in Ikoyi.

“On the day I was arrested I was arrested in my house and I was taken to Ikeja SARS Station, journalists were there, they had beaten the hell out of me in my house, I was interviewed by the journalists on Sunday a day after I was arrested on Saturday.

“The police killed one Felix Chinemeri in my presence,” he said.

Earlier during proceedings, Insp Idowu Haruna was cross-examined by Ajanaku, he told the court it took more than an hour to obtain Evans’ statement.

Haruna denied that Evans changed his clothes because of blood stains from torture before the video of Evans giving his confessional statement was made.

He denied editing the five minute and 33- second video of Evans giving his statement to the police.

“I never threatened to kill the first defendant (Evans) and I never created fear in him by killing people in his presence,” Haruna said.

Evans is standing trial alongside Uche Amadi, Ogechi Uchechukwu, Chilaka Ifeanyi, Okwuchukwu Nwachukwu and Victor Aduba.

Justice Hakeem Oshodi thereafter adjourned the case until Nov. 23 for the continuation of defence in the trial-within-trial.

•Sourced from Tribune report

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