On the morning of
January 21, 2010, as five armed policemen escorted Ikenna Samuelson
Iwuoha into the black Toyota Prado SUV registered to the Imo State
government house, his neighbours must have looked on with envy.
They would have
thought that Mr Iwuoha’s activism had finally caught the attention of
the authorities and that the government had decided to hush him up by
rewarding him with a cabinet position. Or what else could be the reason
for the VIP treatment he was receiving?
Little did they
know that this wasn’t actually a luxury ride but one that would take Mr
Iwuoha to hell. On that day, the governor of Imo State, Ikedi Ohakim,
took it upon himself to personally flog the 40-year-old father of two.
Right inside the governor’s office, the governor, armed with a
horsewhip, stripped Mr Iwuoha completely naked and for almost two hours
flogged him like an erring donkey.
The activist, who
has filed several legal suits against the governor, said his experience
is one he will not forget in a hurry. He said it is his efforts to
point out the excesses of state officials that have turned him into the
governor’s number one enemy.
But an aide to the
governor, Henry Ekpe, decribed Mr Iwuoha as little more than a
criminal. He said the conviction of the man by a state magistrate
should caution reporters against believing his story.
“This matter has
been over-flogged by the press,” Mr Ekpe, the spokesperson to the
governor, said. “He was taken to court over the defamation of the
character of the governor and he was convicted. I learnt he appealed,
but the appeal was thrown out. He is even a jail bird as I’m talking to
you now over this allegation. I don’t know why he is revisiting that
issue. What he said was discovered to be baseless and he was convicted
over the allegation. Nothing of such ever happened. He raised this
issue to smear the character of the governor. It was discovered to be a
fabrication and he was jailed.”
The abused man
however said his conviction had nothing to do with the substance of his
allegations. “The magistrate sentenced me to three months in jail for
abusing the judicial process,” he said. “On July 2, 2010, I went to
court for the usual hearing of my suit against the governor and the
chief magistrate, Victoria Isiguzo, said I granted an interview with a
local paper. The magistrate sentenced me to three months in prison for
granting an interview on a matter that was still pending in court.”
Enemy No. 1
Mr Iwuoha, when
asked how he was transformed from being a staunch supporter of the
governor to being his number one enemy, said his refusal to keep quiet
in the face of misgovernance was the source of his suffering.
“When Ikedi Ohakim
was sworn in as the governor of Imo State, he was wholeheartedly
received by the people,” he said. “People believed that his coming into
governance will bring the needed peace. But unfortunately, he shot
himself in the foot when he embarked on the destruction of the economic
activities of the poor masses without cogent reasons.”
Mr Iwuoha
confronted Mr Ohakim by putting his pen to work. He churned out a
series of commentaries in the vibrant local media in Owerri as well as
in national newspapers where he highlighted the alleged misrule and
misappropriations of the Ohakim’s administration.
His write-ups caught the governor’s attention.
“The governor
became jittery”, he said. According to Mr Iwuoha, in a desperate means
to shut him up, the governor ordered that his businesses be shut down.
Attack on his business
Mr Iwuoha is a
petroleum product dealer. He sells kerosene and engine oil and he has
several outlets in Owerri and its environs.
“As a way to melt
down my opinion and force me to recoil in my cocoon, he instructed his
special assistant on environment, Willie Amadi, to destroy my
businesses,” the man said.
The attack on his
means of livelihood, rather than shut Mr Iwuoha up, instead fired him
up. “But he was shocked. Rather than subdue me I came out boldly to
challenge him”.
Mr Iwuoha wrote
several petitions to security and anti-graft agencies which did not
elicit any meaningful response. Matters came to a head after Mr Iwuoha
wrote a petition to the state house of assembly demanding that the
legislators constitute a probe panel to look into the alleged
widespread mismanagement and misappropriation of public fund of the
Ohakim administration.
At this juncture,
the governor allegedly decided he had had enough. Mr Iwuoha’s
“excesses” had become personal and needed to be dealt with personally.
The abduction and beating
“It was like a
mafioso movie”, said Mr Iwuoha while recounting the way the governor’s
security detail abducted him from his house and presented him to their
‘godfather’.
“The governor sent
five armed men to my house at Plot 98, Ikenegbu Extension, Owerri. Four
of them were wearing mufti; only one was wearing a bulletproof vest.
They knocked at my gate and told me that the then-commissioner of
police, Aloysius Okorie, was looking for me. I told them it wasn’t true
because two days earlier I had a conversation with the commissioner
where I agree to see him in two days’ time. They pulled their guns on
me and ordered me to come out.”
But before Mr
Iwuoha followed the policemen, he put a call through to the
commissioner who, after initially denying that he sent the men,
reluctantly told Mr Iwuoha to follow them. But before he did, he told
Mr Okorie that he had called his folks and told them that if anything
happens to him, the police commissioner should be held responsible.
At this point, Mr
Iwuoha had no inkling of what awaited him until he stepped out of his
house and discovered that the SUV had a government house number plate.
He protested, but he was ordered to get into the vehicle.
At the government house, after more than two hours of being held hostage in the SUV, he was driven to the governor’s office.
“As I was led into
the governor’s office by the chief security officer, the governor
shouted, ‘Lock the door, lock the door,’ and the door was shut. The
chief security officer pointed a gun to my head and the governor
ordered me to pull off my clothes,” he said.
Mr Iwuoha said he
was too shocked to think. While he hesitated, he said governor walked
to him and with the help of one of his goons, identified as Kenneth,
personally tore off all items of clothing on him. He was completely
naked.
“The governor
head-butted me, punched me in the face and kicked me before returning
to his table to grab a horsewhip,” recalled Mr Iwuoha. “He ordered me
to lie on the rug and he flogged me ruthless. It is natural, when the
pains became unbearable, I cried for mercy.
“While he was at
it, his younger brother, Emmanuel Ohakim, who doubles as his chief of
staff rushed in and shouted, ‘His excellency, his excellency!’ The
governor looked up and said, ‘Emma, this is Ikenna Samuelson. I will
kill him today.'”
Luckily for Mr
Iwuoha, the governor’s brother wasn’t happy about what was going on. He
sighed and walked out of the office. His brother’s reaction calmed the
governor little. Mr Iwuoha quickly saw an opening to save his head.
“Then I told him
that what he was doing was abnormal, that he was desecrating the office
of the governor; besides, I also reminded him that my wife is from his
town and that according to Igbo culture, he was my children’s Nna Ochie
(godfather),” the beaten man said.
He said his plea apparently had some effect on Mr Ohakim and he stopped the beating completely.
“He pulled a seat
and started shouting: ‘Samuelson, why are you disgracing me in this
country? Why are you disgracing the governor of Imo State?'”
Mr Iwuoha said he
believed the governor had planned to kill him on that day. He said his
saving grace was probably the call he made to the state police
commissioner when he was being taken from his home and the reaction of
the governor’s brother.
Mr Iwuoha has initiated several court cases against the governor
which have ended up nowhere, due to the immunity from prosecution the
governor enjoys.
