Gunmen alleged to be members of the police force and the state security service attack and kill three brothers in Akwa Ibom State

It was 2.52 p.m. when the security guard opened the big black gate and directed the visitor to the garden of the vast and airy compound of Helen Ukpabio, the Calabar-based founder of Liberty Gospel Church and producer of Liberty Films. His mission was to meet and chat with Ukpabio’s aged parents who had run from their Mbente village in Nkari clan of Ini local government area, Akwa Ibom State, to their daughter’s residence in Calabar, following the gruesome murder of their three sons before their eyes by armed men suspected to be policemen and members of the State Security Service, SSS, late March.

It was like one was paying a visit to a house of mourning. Essien Akpabio, aged 82, and his wife, Atim, who is 72 years old, were in the garden. The man was sitting on a sofa and the wife was lying on a wooden bench. Their hair had turned all white. As the guard introduced the visitor and left, Akpabio stretched his legs in front of the sofa as if he was telling himself to sit up because a visitor had come around.

The wife rose up and sat on the bench, wiping her face. She was not sweating. The shade provided by trees and flowers of the garden and the cold weather marking the beginning of the rains would not allow for any hot weather. Yet, she was putting the handkerchief around her eyes time and again. The old woman was weeping and always trying to wipe her tears.

The Akpabio’s lost four of their children in one week. Two of them, Joseph and Charles were allegedly tortured by the arms-carrying men and later shot dead at about 1p.m. on March 25, in their father’s compound. The third son, Emmanuel, was shot dead with two other youths by the same men at Obot Akara, two days later. Their daughter, Elizabeth, a graduate of English and Linguistics, who was residing in Abuja, went into coma upon hearing about the killing of the three brothers. She was rushed to the hospital but could not survive it. As it were, her parents are yet to be told about the passage of Elizabeth.

The mother of the slain young men said that on  that fateful day, the police arrived their compound with their three sons, Charles, a sailor, Joseph, a businessman, and Emmanuel, a cocoa farmer, who were invited by three white men the previous day to attend a meeting of the youths at Ikot Ekpene.

She said she was asking the young men’s captors what they had done to deserve their plight, weeping and begging them to spare their lives, but their captors would not. She said she asked Charles what went wrong and he said the police brought them to the village to look for the gun they (police) claimed that they had in their possession.

“They had shot him and his brother in the ankle, totally bruised their legs and kept them by a banana tree on arriving the compound. Charles asked me to give him water. When I brought water to him, one of the policemen shoved me aside, kicked me with his leg while using an iron to hit me on the back. I fell down and the water poured on the floor. By that time Emmanuel was taken back to the vehicle.

She said she went near to hold the captors, pleading that they let the boys alone, but the men shoved her aside. One of them kicked her away and hit her with an object. She has since been receiving treatment in  a hospital.

The chat was suspended when she burst out weeping after saying, “they dragged my sons under the banana trees in the compound and shot them dead and jumped into their two vehicles and drove out. Please help me beg Mrs. Goodluck Jonathan to plead with them to give me the body of Emmanuel.”

The husband, a former police officer, who had served in the Force Criminal Investigation Department, FCID,  completed the story when he told Newswatch that their other son, Emmanuel, whom he described as a very quiet and harmless and reserved lad that was always busy in his (the father) large cocoa farm was driven out with three other youths and killed “God knows where.”

“Look at me now. I am 82 years old with a very large cocoa farm that I began after I left the police force. This is where I was feeding from. Now I am old and weak in my body. How do I plant or harvest cocoa? How do I run the farm? What type of life is this when three sons are just killed like chickens before the parents?” The chat was also suspended because he burst out weeping.

When it resumed minutes later, Akpabio told Newswatch that what resulted in the unfortunate incident began the previous day when a youth and friend of the deceased sons from the neighbouring village of Efa, whose name he gave as Benjamin Christopher arrived the compound with three white men. He said the men came with a bottle of wine and asked for his sons - Joseph and Charles and Emmanuel who were youth leaders in the village. He said they held a brief meeting where the white men suggested that his children come over to Ikot Ekpene the following day to continue the meeting which, they claimed had to do with the proposed dam project in the community.

Newswatch learnt it was agreed that the meeting should hold in Joseph’s house at Ikot Ekpene, about an hour’s drive from their Mbente village. No sooner had the meeting started than it ended as the white men reportedly asked to have an interlude outside with the men – Joseph, Charles and Emmanuel, the three other youths and Otu. The lads were said to have been handcuffed by waiting armed men, allegedly led by a State Security Service personnel. Their legs were shot and bruised at the ankle except those of Otu. They were then driven back to the village.  “I was in my house and my wife came and told me that people were scampering everywhere saying police were coming with so many vehicles. She said I should follow the people and run. But I said ‘you know I have waist pain and cannot run.’ So, I entered my house, locked the door and went right inside. I picked my slippers that were outside so that people may not know that somebody was inside the house. I went right inside and squatted in a corner of the room. Immediately after that, I heard some bangs on my door. They had arrived and had driven straight to my compound. They hit the door and were shouting at my wife, “Where is that your husband? Where is your husband?” My wife told them, ‘He went down this side, pointing to a certain direction.’ So all of them rushed down, combing everywhere for me.

There were two vehicles and so many policemen. I peeped from the hole in the room to also see them drag my children – Charles and Joseph inside the compound. They had shot and bruised their legs so they could not walk.

He said in the midst of the commotion and the plea of his wife and sister that the lives of Charles and Joseph be spared, he heard the gunshot that took away the life of the young man and his brother. He said thereafter, he saw them drive out the two Hilux vans with a number of policemen inside of it and had to rush outside of the room only to meet the bruised and lifeless bodies of his children.

At this point the man broke down again. “Oh, they shot my own children in my house. They killed my children in my presence. Did they kill them for any crimes they committed? What were the crimes? As a former police officer, I cannot allow my children to be involved in crime. Can someone tell me why my three children were killed? What have I done?” he asked, fighting back tears in his eyes.

It was learnt that Emmanuel and the two other young men that were driven out in the Hilux vans were later shot dead and their bodies left somewhere near Obot Akara, in Obot Akara local government area. Akpabio said all he needs now is the release of the body of Emmanuel for burial. He also called on the government and well meaning Nigerians and the global community to help him secure justice for his slain children.

Henry Akpabio, a brother of the deceased who is based in the United Kingdom corroborated his father’s request. He told Newswatch in a telephone interview that it was difficult to believe such massacre of his brothers could take place in his village and father’s compound. “It was a terrific act. It is unbelievable that this could happen and more unbelievable that government apparatus like the Police Force and the SSS could be used for the barbaric act,” he said.

He told Newswatch: “I’m not in my house as I’m speaking to you now. I’ve gone into hiding because I learnt they want to kill all of us. You don’t know who they could use to kill you in your house.” He called on the British government to help secure his life and that of his family. He appealed to the United Kingdom and international agencies to get his parents out of the country.

Onyeka Orji, police public relations officer, told Newswatch that the police was investigating the incident. “The police is a disciplined organisation and we have an internal cleansing mechanism. So, any member of the force that will be involved in extra-judicial killing will be tried and prosecuted,” he said.

“We are not holding brief for any corrupt policeman or any killer among the police. If there are truths in that report, the commissioner of police, deputy commissioner of police, the OC state CID, the divisional police officer, all the senior officers are there, let them come to us.”

The Akpabio family insists that it has reported the case to the police and other relevant authorities and were still waiting their action. Nsima Akang, a lawyer, told Newswatch that the family’s petition to Umar Gwadabe, the state commissioner of police on the matter was delivered some four weeks earlier. He also said police authorities at Obot Akara have been contacted to secure the bodies of Emmanuel and other victims but the police there claimed they have no knowledge of the said bodies. Rose Joseph Akpabio, the wife of the slain Joseph, is said to have also reported the killing of her husband to the police.

Newswatch also visited Akwa Ibom State headquarters of the State Security Service, SSS, in Uyo. The state director of the service was not in office. However, the reporter spoke with Mr. Ephraim, the assistant director, about the claim that the killer squad was headed by a personnel of the agency. Ephraim claimed he was hearing about the incident for the first time. He would not answer any questions nor make further comment on the matter, saying it was only the state director that was competent to speak with journalists.