Mr. Benson Aigbojie, Esq., the young lawyer accused of heading a
fraud syndicate has finally narrated his own side of the story of
how he was arrested and detained by men of the Nigerian Police
Force.
Narrating his ordeal in the hands of the security agencies, he
registered his disappointment with the Secretary of Unity Bar, Mr.
Chidi Ezenwafor who he accused to have made a hasty, defamatory,
scandalous and malicious report against him.
He thus demanded that Mr. Ezenwafor immediately tender an
apology which must be published in all the online news outlet
including two national newspapers within 48 hours from the date of
the letter.
He also requested for the payment of Fifty Million Naira (N50,
000, 000.00), as damages for defamation of his character; and the
immediate resignation of Mr. Ezenwafor, as the Secretary of the
Unity Bar Branch of the NBA.
Blow read the full press statement
PRESS STATEMENT ON MY ABDUCTION, BRUTALITY AND UNLAWFUL
DETENTION BY THE NIGERIA POLICE FORCE ON THE 3RD DAY OF AUGUST
2019.
THE NBA President, Learned Senior Advocates, Distinguished
Branch Chairmen/ persons, Elders, Seniors and Colleagues of the
Bar, my name is Benson Aigbojie. I was called to the Nigerian Bar
in 2013. I apologize for releasing this statement this late. My
health condition is the sole reason for my delay.
Like you already know, I am the lawyer who was beaten, injured,
brutalized, abducted, unlawfully detained and defamed by the
officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force and I ended up
suffering and enduring the negative side of the Nigeria (in)
justice system for three days and two nights. I was rendered
half-naked and unceremoniously shuttled in that manner, from the
Kabusa Police Station in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, down
to the faraway, albeit notorious Zone 2 Police Command of the
Nigeria Police Force in Onikan, Lagos State. My painful experience
seems to be just another sad episode of the present state of our
beloved country which appears to continue to edge towards the state
of nature.
The unforgettable experience shoved down my throat by the
officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force became even more
miserable when one of ‘our own’ (the Secretary of the NBA, Unity
Bar), acting on the one-sided details from the DPO, Kabusa Police
Division, galloped to the media while I bled from virtually every
part of my body, announcing to the world that I was the head of a
fraud syndicate who hacked into a company account and defrauded the
company to the tune of Fifty Two Million Naira (N52, 000, 000.00),
without reaching me nor my colleague to hear our side of the
story.
It all began on Saturday, the 3rd of August, 2019. In grave
resistance to the urge to relax, having just returned to Abuja,
from my late father’s burial (Paul Aigbojie) in Edo State, I
proceeded to the Kabusa Police Station, in the company of my
colleague, Mr. Maduabuchi O. Idam. Our intention was to see a
client who was detained at the said police station and render our
professional services. As we proceeded into the station premises to
perform our duties as lawyers and perhaps earn our fees, little did
I know that fate had a different plan for me.
As we walked in, the moment we introduced ourselves as lawyers
and went ahead to request to see our client, the Investigating
Police Officer (IPO) commanded us to leave the police station! In
shock, I humbly requested to know the IPO’s reason, but before I
could even complete my statement, the IPO pushed me down, with such
brutishness and viciousness only imaginable at a war front. I fell
down on some iron rods and sustained serious injuries. As I
attempted to stand up and regain my balance, I verily informed the
IPO that I will take steps to make a formal complaint to the Police
Disciplinary Committee, my statement only further incensed the
IPO.
He rushed me, pounded my head with fist blows and tore my
clothes into shreds. At this time, I kept muttering, “what have I
done? what have I done?” This unprovoked assault on me was ably
assisted and supervised by other police officers in the station. I
was thereafter bundled and thrown inside a waiting but dirty and
untidy police cell. While I was in the cell and trying to clear my
eyes off the blood dripping from my head, I managed to notice that
the police officers had turned on my colleague, they continuously
slapped him on his cheek, struggled to also arrest him but finally
heeded to the order of an officer who demanded that they should
push him outside the station.
While in the police cell, they kept taunting me and mocking me,
calling me all manner of names including ‘small lawyer’. They
taunted me with all manner of words, mocking me to save myself. I
sat at a corner of the cell, wondering how the revered Nigeria
Police Force descended this low. It was while these thoughts were
running riot in my mind that I overheard the police officers
planning and scheming a way to ‘savage’ the situation. Of course,
they knew their actions were not only evil, they also knew it to be
condemnable. Alas, they arrived at a plot to persist on their
unlawful activity.
They brought me out and demanded that I write my statement. With
an unsteady hand, bleeding legs but steady mind, I wrote my
statement to the police. They read through the statement, wherein I
comprehensively indicted them, they therefore had no other option
than to hatch their evil, wicked and sinister plot to detain me.
They threw me back into their cell and went into a nearby office
for a brief meeting. Upon noticing my first name to be ‘Benson’,
they suddenly rushed out, beaming with a renewed but evil energy
and screaming at the top of their voices that my client in his
statement mentioned one ‘Benjamin’, a supposed name of one of the
suspects in the alleged fraud being investigated.
They feigned ignorance of the difference between ‘Benson’ and
‘Benjamin’. They insisted that both names were shortened as ‘Ben’.
They thereby arrived at a wicked plot to rope me into a crime I
know nothing about, this was despite my client’s instant refuter
that I have nothing to do with the offence being investigated and
that he wrote ‘Benjamin’ in his statement and not ‘Benson’.
By this time, my colleague had released a broadcast to several
media outlet, NBA social platforms as well as other lawyers’
groups. The heat was on. Out of the blues, the police decided that
they had to transfer me to Zone 2, Onikan, Lagos State for further
investigations. Indeed, they immediately provided a vehicle,
bundled me in and zoomed off. It was while we were on our way to
Lagos state that Messrs. Clement Chukwuemeka, Folarin Aluko and
Maduabuchi O. Idam called one of the Police Officers, and spoke
with me, assuring me that the NBA will never neglect me.
I became reassured. Those phone calls were the firsts of over
three hundred other phone calls which subsequently besieged the
officer’s phone, concerning my abduction and unlawful detention. It
then dawned on the erring police officers that they will not be
able to go scot-free with their unlawful actions.
It was only then that they started to attempt to broker peace
with me, offering and tempting me with all manner of pleasure. They
confessed to me that they are verily aware of my innocence but they
only lingered on their unlawful act due to my resilience in
representing my client despite the ‘almighty’ command from the IPO
that I should exit the police station. They even lodged me in a
hotel room in Ondo state, where we transited.
We finally arrived Lagos state on Sunday, 4th of August, 2019. I
least expected the promptness and sacrifice made by the leadership
of the Nigerian Bar Association. I was released on Monday, 5th of
August, 2019, owing to the timely intervention of the NBA.
Upon my arrival in Abuja vide an Aero Contractor Tuesday flight,
I underwent series of tests and medical treatments at the General
Hospital, Asokoro. My health is presently frail but I am in a
steady condition. My sad experience, however, is a timely reminder
of our decaying justice system. A system wherein lawyers are fast
becoming endangered species; a system where a lawyer can barely
perform his professional duties without being afraid of backlash,
police brutality and abduction, like in my case.
It is also important to inform the general public to stay calm
and watch on as justice is served in this matter. This information
is especially to those individuals who might be having deep
thoughts and wondering what would be the fate of the ‘ordinary’
man, if such degrading and inhumane treatment could be meted on me,
a lawyer. I beseech all lovers of justice and fairness not to be
discouraged in their struggle to enthrone justice and the rule of
law in our beloved country.
And, As an aside and a quick rebuttal to the callous and
unguided defamatory statement circulated about my person, my
upbringing forbids me from meddling with fraud. As a fact, I was
thought right from my childhood that there is dignity in labour. My
upbringing also dictates to me to be contented with whatever I own,
irrespective of the largeness or smallness. I have lived by this,
all my life and I have indeed come to realize that hard work pays.
I am a student of the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi.
The life and principles of Chief Gani spurred me to study law
and as a student in the famed Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma,
where I graduated with one of the best classes of results, I was
schooled to maintain a very high level of discipline and integrity.
I was also carved and forged by my school to be a very dogged and
strong-willed lawyer, with an avid desire to fight for justice and
fairness. While in school, my upright character transported me to
the position of Acting President of the Law Students Association of
the school when the Executive was enmeshed in crisis. My background
makes it uneasy for me to stand idle while constitutionally
guaranteed rights are trampled and the rule of law and legal
processes are crushed.
I hereby use this medium to thank the Nigerian Bar Association,
ably led by Paul Usoro, SAN. It is without doubt that the reign of
Mr. Usoro as NBA President has brought progress and renewed zeal
into the legal profession, especially for young lawyers. His reign
as the President of the NBA has recorded various positives and his
continuous struggle to preserve the sanctity and independence of
our institutions as well as his constant strive to promote the
tenets of the rule of law, are testaments of his desire for a
better Nigeria, where the rights of individuals are not only
enshrined in our laws but also protected and guaranteed.
I also specially appreciate my brother and colleague, Maduabuchi
O. Idam, Esq whose doggedness and vibrancy awakened the
intervention of the Nigerian Bar. I particularly recognize the
Unity Bar, Ikorodu and Bwari branch Chairmen, Messrs. Folarin
Aluko, Bayo Akinlade and Clement Chukwuemeka as well as other
officials of the NBA. I also recognise the efforts of the following
persons and bodies: the Young Lawyers Forum of NBA, the 2012
graduating set of the Faculty of Law, Ambrose Alli University, Mr.
Brown Osarenkhoe, Mr. Favour Asiazobor, Bridget Edokwe of
BarristerNG, Ifeoma Peters, Moses Anyaogu, Mr. Dominic, RULLAAC and
all media outlets, NGOs and the general public whose voices and
actions were heard and felt during my unkind experience.
On the hasty, defamatory, scandalous and malicious
report made against my person and my colleague Maduabuchi O. Idam,
Esq. by Mr. Chidi Ezenwafor and the DPO of Kabusa Police Division,
I hereby formally make demands for the following;
i. Immediate apology by Mr. Ezenwafor and the DPO, which must be
published in all the online news outlet including two national
newspapers within 48 hours from the date of this letter;
ii. The payment of Fifty Million Naira (N50, 000, 000.00), as
damages for defamation of our character; and
iii. The immediate resignation of Mr. Ezenwafor, as the Secretary
of the Unity Bar Branch of the NBA, as his conduct is grossly unfit
for public position of a professional body like the Nigerian Bar
Association.
NOTICE IS HEREBY ISSUED THAT IF THE ABOVE DEMANDS ARE NOT MET
WITHIN 48 HOURS, WE SHALL BE CONSTRAINED TO TAKE A LEGAL ACTION
AGAINST HIM AND THE DPO OF KABUSA POLICE STATION, WHERE THIS IS
THE CASE, OUR CLAIMS WILL NOT BE LIMITED TO THE ABOVE
DEMANDS.
God bless Nigeria.
SIGNED
Benson Aigbojie, Esq.
Abuja, Nigeria.