If a soothsayer had looked into Chibuzor’s (not real name) future and told him he would be arrested by policemen on his way home from work on May 8, 2024, and land in Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison, Lagos, without committing a crime, he would have argued and asked the soothsayer to check again.

But it happened.

Chibuzor had just closed the bakery where he worked as a baker and was heading home around 11 pm on May 8 when two policemen stopped him along Cele Express. One of them asked where he was coming from.

“I am just coming from work and heading home,” he replied.

The policeman also asked where he worked and requested his ID card. Chibuzor told him he was a baker and had forgotten his ID card at work because he left hurriedly.

He had not finished speaking when the second policeman grabbed him from behind. Chibuzor told him he was not a criminal that should be held that way, but the policeman did not listen. He told Chibuzor he would explain himself at their station.

“I followed him and did not struggle because I did not want to be accused wrongly of a crime I did not commit. When we got to their station in Cele, I was asked to submit all my possessions,” said Chibuzor.

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“I gave them my wallet, wristwatch, bracelet and phone. But they refused to tell me my offence and asked me to wait until the next morning. I saw them bringing more people into the station.”

The next morning, the police officers told Chibuzor and the others that they could contact their relatives to inform them of their arrest.

“One of the officers who arrested me told me to call my boss at work since I claimed I forgot my ID card there. I did, but he didn’t respond, so I called my supervisor, and he said he would come get me out. I wanted to call my family to inform them of my arrest, but an officer said I was only entitled to a phone call and should allow the others make phone calls.

“Some minutes later, we were asked to pick up our items and move into a bus. We asked where the bus was headed, but there was no response. The bus halted when we arrived at a place. I looked around and saw that it was the Lagos State Task Force station in Oshodi. We submitted our items again and were moved into a room.”

Chibuzor described the room they were ushered into as small and unable to contain hundreds of them who had been forced inside it. He told FIJ that they were taken to court from there.

FORCED TO CONFESS TO A CRIME HE DIDN’T COMMIT

He told FIJ that when they got to court, the policemen who accompanied them told them to plead guilty to whatever crime they were accused of because that was the only thing that would guarantee their freedom, and if they confessed they were not guilty, they would rot in prison.

“When the judge was reading out our charges, I heard him say we were found roaming the streets around 12 midnight and 1 am, which made us suspected criminals. That was a lie. I was arrested before 11 pm. The judge pronounced us guilty and we were then asked to march out of the courtroom,” said Chibuzor.

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“We thought we were going outside to bail ourselves, but we were taken back to the cell we had come from. This time, we were handed our properties. I called my supervisor again, and he said he could not come because he was the only one at work. I also called my relatives to inform them of my location. They were worried.”

Chibuzor had not spent up to an hour there when they were ordered out again. When they got out, a Black Maria and two police vehicles were parked in front of them. They were ordered to go into it.

“The policemen began using canes and other items to beat us and force us into the Black Maria. Some people were injured, but they did not care. We were treated like criminals. They collected our properties from us, but I managed to hold on to my phone.

“The Black Maria did not halt until we arrived at Kirikiri Maximum Prison. When we alighted, I contacted my relatives to tell them I had been transferred to Kirikiri. Everyone was running helter-skelter to see if they could contact their relatives. Some inmates we met there had phones they used for businesses.”

When Chibuzor called his relatives, they promised to get a lawyer who would get him out of prison. They stayed true to their promise and got him a lawyer, and when the lawyer arrived, he told Chibuzor to narrate all that had happened and speak nothing but the truth.

He spent five days in Kirikiri until luck shone on him on Tuesday, when he was released with the help of the lawyer.

He told FIJ that many of the people who had been arrested and forced to confess guilty to a crime they didn’t commit were still there, and before he left, they gave him the phone numbers of their relatives so he could inform them of their whereabouts.

“I have been running around since then, trying to contact their relatives. It was a rough experience. Nobody expected it,” he said.