A woman based in Sapele, Delta State has accused the suspended deputy commissioner of police Abba Kyari of being involved in the illegal detention of her husband for more than a year.
Rose Okoro petitioned the attorney general of the federation Abubakar Malami, and inspector-general of police Alkali Usman, alleging her husband Sunday Okoro has been in detention since September 2020.
Mrs Okoro narrated her ordeal to journalists on Friday. In her petition, she said her husband was arrested in Sapele on September 9, 2020 by policemen following complaints of threats to life made by one Sunny Nwankego.
She added that her 14-year-old son was also arrested, handcuffed with the father and paraded while their phones were confiscated.
She alleged that her son was detained for over three weeks before he was released, but her husband was denied bail on three attempts on alleged instructions of a senior police officer.
She said, “They were taken to Benin and when l inquired, l was told that the policemen were not from Benin but a team led by Abba Kyari before they were transferred to Abuja and they were denied bail for two weeks until we had a human rights activist who came to our rescue.
“He was able to release our son while my husband was still held, maltreated and kept in ‘abattoir’ from September 9 to October 27, 2020 before being taken to an area court in Mpape that has no jurisdiction to entertain an alleged case of threat to life.
“The area court in Mpape declined jurisdiction and my husband was remanded in Suleja Correctional center with no concrete evidence of the offence till May 19, 2021, when he was arraigned for a case of threat to life and act of terrorism at the Federal High Court, Abuja.
“The judge granted him bail on poor health grounds resulting from the unlawful torture he went through in the hands of the police. He needed urgent medical attention so he wouldn’t go blind but he was refused bail before the complainant filed another fresh charge in another Federal High Court on threat to life and act of terrorism.”
