The publisher of Elombah.com
and a United Kingdom-based lawyer, Mr. Daniel Elombah, has confirmed that at
least three members of his family were abducted on the New Year day 2018 by
members of the Federal Special Anti-Armed Robbery Squad (SARS), reports ITRealms.
Elombah in a public statement sighted by ITRealms, lamented that till the time of
going to the press, his family cannot leave the country, whilst his children
school resumption was on Wednesday, January 3, 2018.
According to him, “on the 1st day of January 2018, men of
the Federal Special Anti-Armed Robbery Squad, SARS, numbering about 15 and
armed to the teeth stormed our family compound in Edoji Uruagu Nnewi, Anambra
state.
“The men who struck around 5:am on the new year day climbed
over the gate with their ladder and ransacked the entire house. At the end of
the operation, 6 adult male members of the family including myself were
handcuffed, herded into a rickety bus and driven to the SARS Nnewi office where
we were briefly detained.
“No one explained to us the reason for our arrest thereby
throwing the entire family including our aged mother, our wives and our little
children into great distress. Our repeated requests for the reason for our
arrest was met with a terse, "you'll be told at the station".
“From Nnewi we were driven to the SARS headquarters in
Awkuzu, near Awka, again without being told the reason for our arrest.
“At the SARS state headquarters we were handed over to a
different set of four armed men who were later identified as officers from the
Special Tactical Squad, STS, a crack team of operatives directly in the office
of Nigeria's Inspector General Of Police.
“Their team leader explained that the IGP (Inspector General
of Police) personally ordered our arrest because my brother Tim Elombah, was accused
of publishing an article on an online media, Elombah.com which article was
allegedly aimed at blackmailing the IGP. We requested for details of the
offending article but were told that we will be given the details in Abuja
where we were headed shortly. “The STS team leader thereafter released 3 of my
brothers who were told to find their way back home to Nnewi, while the 3 of us
namely: myself, Tim and Izuchukwu Elombah were herded in handcuffs into another
Bus after we were briefly interrogated.
“At this point I repeatedly requested to be told the offence
for which I was arrested but was ignored. The allegation against Izuchukwu, a
trader in Niger State was also not provided to us.
“We left Anambra State and arrived at the STS Abuja office
around 5:00pm.
“My brother Tim who is also the editor-in-chief of the
online news medium, www.Elombah.com was grilled for nearly three hours while I,
and Izuchukwu were detained behind the Counter.
"All of us were eventually interrogated separately for
several hours. It thereafter emerged that my brother Tim was accused of
publishing a defamatory article on a website. The article titled "IGP
Ibrahim Idris's Unending Baggage of Controversies" was published as an
opinion piece on opinionnigeria.com, an online medium that was hitherto unknown
to any us. Moreover the author of the said article was one Ebiowei Dickson,
again a very strange name to the three of us.
"My brother, Tim repeatedly denied writing the article which
in any case was NOT published on Elombah.com. Tim also denied knowing the
identity of Ebiowei Dickson.
"Around midnight, my friend, Chief Obunike Ohaegbu who was a
Federal Commissioner used his influence to secure my release and that of my
brother Izuchukwu Elombah, but Tim Elombah remains in detention.
"Let me emphasise that up till now the Police have not
revealed to me and Izuchukwu our alleged offences. No one has informed me why I
was abducted from my country home, handcuffed like a criminal and transported
in a bus over a very bad road for 700 miles to Abuja. Izuchukwu was assaulted,
slapped, punched and beaten. We were physically and psychologically tortured
and traumatised! My mother's blood pressure shot through the roof and she is
presently undergoing medical treatment.
"Our children were traumatised at the
sight of gun totting hefty men that we initially mistook for armed robbers or
kidnappers banging at our doors and waking up the entire household in the wee
hours of the morning of the new year day. My movement is restricted and I'm not
allowed to leave the country. That means that I and my family could not travel
back to London as scheduled to enable our children resume schooling. The
schools resumed on Wednesday 3rd January.”
Uboshe Uboshe/GEE
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