Anambra judicial panel session [NAN]
The petitioner says the panel should award
compensation of N50 million to her and her
children.
Mrs Christisna Nnatuanya, widow of Linus
Nnatuanya, who allegedly died in the custody of
disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), in
Awkuzu, Anambra, says she is ashamed that she
can't show her seven children the grave of their
father.
Nnatuanya who testified at the Judicial Panel of
Inquiry (JPI) on SARS activities in Awka on Tuesday
said her husband was arrested at Ogbaru area of
Anambra in January 2007 without warrant.
She said she could not see her husband until about
six days when somebody told her that police
personnel arrested some people in the area.
Christian said she later found her husband in SARS
cell at Awkuzu.
She said her deceased husband told her he was
arrested on the allegation that he was a member of
the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign
State of Biafra (MASSOB).
"The heat and stench was much and my husband
was allergic to heat. So they said I should go and
bring N400,000, but I did not have it. I later raised
N40,000 and on getting there, they said he had been
moved to Abuja.
"It was one man by the name Ugochukwu Eze from
Ebonyi who was arrested with him that told me that
my husband had died in SARS cell; since then, all
efforts to see him or his corpse have failed.
"People mock me that my husband died in SARS cell
and there is no grave where I can point at where he
was hurried. If only they can show me where they
buried him, I can take the sand home for burial," she
said.
The petitioner said the panel should award
compensation of N50 million to her and her
children to cushion the pain of the loss and that the
officers who were responsible for her husband's
death be brought to book.
In response, SP Innocent Obi , of the Legal
Department of the State Criminal Investigation
Department (SCID) Anambra, said there was no
record related to the matter with the Police and
prayed the panel to rule that there was no
infringement on the part of the Police.
Hon. Justice Veronica Umeh , Chairman of the panel
said investigation would continue on the matter.