- Dr. Okechukwu Kenneth Nwafor far right with his kinsmen listens to Femi Falana, SAN during the visit
By Emmanuel Ukudolo I Tuesday, January 20.26
IKEJA, Lagos – A retired soldier and former lecturer at Abia State University, Dr. Okechukwu Kenneth Nwafor has revealed the shocking details how truck loads of DSS officials and soldiers stormed his home at 2:35 am in Uterus, Abia State and kidnapped him in boxers while he was with his family.
He also unveiled the inhuman treatment he suffered in the hands of DSS and soldiers in Abia, Abuja and Wawa Cantonment in Niger State and almost giving up in the process when a DSS official hit his head with a hammer.
But for God’s grace and the swift response of Human Rights Lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN he would still be in detention just on suspicion that he belongs to the Indigenous People Of Biafra, IPOB.
Dr. Nwafor spoke when he and his kinsmen, came all the way from Abia to thank the Senior Advocate of Nigeria for the role he played, deploying his resources in liberating their son from torture during this democratic dispensation.
Nwafor said he was sleeping in his house with his wife and children on 29th July, 2023 when officials of the DSS stormed his house at 2:35am and pointed guns at him in his bedroom and was whisked away with only boxers.
” My palour was filled up with DSS and soldiers with over 30 Hilux vans outside in front of my house.
” I was handcuffed, my eyes tied and I was beaten. At a stage on the way, I heard one of them say, let’s waste this man and go away. But a DSS official I guessed prevailed on them from killing me at that moment.
” When I got to DSS office, I was made to face the wall till dawn. The following day, torture started. They used hammer to smash my head, blood gushed out and when my assailant wanted to repeat the feat, a senior officer stepped in and told him to stop requesting why he is hitting me who has been talking voluntarily to them. So he stopped him”.
“They said I belong to IPOB, I told them I am not”, the former soldier, First Class Scholar and lecturer at Abia State University said.
He continued: “On the 3rd of August, they asked me to prepare that I am going home. What followed was that the man cocked his gun and released a shot into the air. My phone was collected and they took me in their car until they passed Okigwe and we arrived ABUJA at 5pm. I entered the DSS headquarters.
“On 7th October, I was very sick, they woke me up and I came out with 35: others. They handcuffed us and gave us water bottles to urinate on the way. They took us to Wawa Cantonment in Niger State. There I saw hellfire on earth. There is no fly, I found thousands of people, youths, suicide bombers, and bandits all classified according to events in each region.
“Everyone from the East is regarded as a member of IPOB. Here they charge you as they desire and force you to enter a guilty plea. One guy who refused to plead guilty was beaten until he fainted.
” While there I kept praying everyday because I didn’t know I will come out alive. Some have spent 15 years there without trial”, he said.
Turning to Mr. Femi Falana, he said: ” May God continue to replenish you. The God who saved me through you will not allow you to encounter any problem”.
Falana told him to lead advocacy to liberate others still in detention.
