Following the registration of our dissatisfaction in the Federal High Court Awka, over the continued detention of some students of Madonna University in Awka prisons for 4 months now. We were able to come up with some more revealing details.
Now, this is going to be a very long piece because I'll carefully detail how the issues started, where we are now and where we are going to. (NB: We also have the charge sheet with which they were charged to court, live interviews with relatives of the students in prisons and other fact based materials which we are going to make available).
Trouble started when the school administration found out that they were being heavily criticized on a Facebook page called "itz madonna". After their investigations, it was alleged that they invited the sub Dean(a lower Dean) of okija campus over to elele for interrogations with the notion that he knows the handlers of the Facebook page. Not satisfied with his responses, they subjected him to some forms of brutality for four (4) days without food and water.
Eventually he was released after taking an oath not to let anyone know/hear what happened. He upon his release, voiced out to someone who made it public in the Alumni WhatsApp group page of the school. This revelation, of course stirred up anger in the hearts of the alumni and some members of the WhatsApp group heavily criticized the school management on the WhatsApp group.
Following a tip-off, the school management started a man-hunt on everyone that commented negatively on the WhatsApp group and that was how #Chijioke_Nnamani and the other persons got involved. Interestingly, the school knowing that the issue is not strong enough, fabricated stories and wrote a petition to the IG of police accusing the young men of Kidnap, Cultism, and armed-robbery. It was with this petition that they arrested the young lads starting from November 2018 till they made the final arrest of #Chijioke_Nnamani from the NYSC camp of Delta state in February 2019.
We contacted the Coordinator of NYSC Delta state to enquire why they would release a serving corp member to the Nigerian police and in his words "I released him because the police showed me an arrest warrant from the IG for capital offences bordering on Kidnapping and armed-robbery". We asked him if he has was given a copy of the petition and he said "No". More findings:
1. We found out that they were detained in CPS Onitsha for about 1 month before they were charged to Court.
2. The allegations (Kidnapping, Cultism and armed-robbery) in the petition (which we've not seen) were changed to cybercrime (defamation of character on Facebook and WhatsApp with intent to incite violence) and later amended.
NB: I will upload the charge sheets and the amended charge sheets.
3. The IPO in charge of the case one Mr. Obo requested the sum of 1million naira each from the 7 families when the case was charged to court to effect the bail order given by the judge and later reduced it to #250,000 naira each which was paid by 2 families but he still did not help them.
4. Yesterday we learnt that Madonna university has employed the services of a SAN to take over the prosecution of the case from the police through a 'fiat' (without a seal from the AGF)
5. It was also alleged that the management of Madonna university gave the sum of #10,000,000 to the prosecuting council (the police) to ensure the boys are not released on bail. This further confirms why they have refused to confirm the address(es) and status of the sureties brought by the parents of the students for their bail. (They are now claiming that they have their hands off the case and can't do anything now that a private firm has taken over). NB: The private firm hasn't taken over yet because the fiat they brought has no seal and the country has no AGF at the moment that would cast his seal on the fiat.
6. With these and many more underlying facts, it is obvious the school management wants to jail these students for committing no crime but just to ultimately put perpetual fear in the hearts and minds of her student so they can't speak up in the face of tyranny. This is an abridged version. More details coming. #Injury_to_one_is_an_injury_to_all . Freedom cometh by struggle.
Comr. Ilogebe Chidi (National Vice President of National Association of Nigerian Students)
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