Four persons previously detained over the burning of the Rivers State House of Assembly have alleged that they were offered N200 million, and relocation abroad among others for them to implicate Edison Ehie, the Chief of Staff to the suspended Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara.
The four, who were arrested and moved to Abuja over the fire at the assembly, spoke on Monday in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
They are Chime Ezebalike, Kenneth Kpasa, Oladele Lukman, and MacPherson Olumini, with only three of them agreeing to have their faces shown.
They were discharged and acquitted in November last year of the accusation after they had spent about six months at the Kuje Correctional Centre.
Ezebalike told newsmen at the news briefing that they were recently contacted by a prominent leader of the Peoples Democratic Party in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area to change their narrative.
He said the request was linked to a wider political scheme aimed at corroborating claims made at a press briefing by a former Head of Service, George Nwaeke, in Abuja.
He said: “We were asked to rewrite our story and falsely name Edison Ehie as the mastermind of the Assembly fire.
“This is after everything we have been through.
“We cannot be part of any nefarious plot, especially not after the trauma we endured.”
They said the crime for which they were framed and now want them to rope Edison in include the Assembly fire; gruesome murder of Bako Angbashim, a Divisional Police Officer in the Ahaoda Area; and an alleged assassination attempt on the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Martins Amaewhule.
They narrated their harrowing six-month ordeal in the hands of security agents and political figures, beginning in December 2023.
They said they were arrested under dubious circumstances, beginning with Oladele on December 5, 2023, Chime and MacPherson on December 16, and Kenneth on January 5, blindfolded and detained at the Federal Intelligence Response Team facility in Port Harcourt.
They said there, they were allegedly tortured, denied legal access, and coerced to sign false confessions.
One particularly disturbing incident, they said, involved a serving member of the Rivers State House of Assembly, who visited them with a uniformed officer and pressured them to implicate Ehie.
“When we refused, they turned to beating and starvation,” they said.
They also accused a former Local Government Chairman of offering them bribes, including N200 million and overseas relocation, for their cooperation.
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These inducements were reportedly offered again during their detention in Abuja, to which some of them had been forcibly transferred.
In one case, they explained that a different detainee was allegedly promised his freedom if he identified Kpasa as an arsonist.
After over six months in Kuje Correctional Centre, the matter was transferred to the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, where in November 2024, all charges were dropped.
Now free, they say it is time to speak out, not just for themselves but for other innocent citizens who may be suffering in silence.
They said: “This country belongs to us all.
“No one should be tortured or forced to lie for political convenience.
“We call on civil society, the media, and all justice-loving Nigerians to rise and resist the weaponisation of state institutions against innocent citizens.”
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