A file image of the #EndSARS protesters at Lekki Tollgate, before the gunfire of October 20.
By Vincent Ujumadu
Awka — MRS. Chidinma Edozieuno, whose husband was taken away from their home by officials of the disbanded State Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, Akwuzu, Anambra State, in 2017 has narrated to members of the panel set up by Governor Willie Obiano to investigate activities of the defunct police unit, how she was made a widow.
In an emotion-laden voice, Mrs. Edozieuno, whose husband hailed from Aguleri in Anambra East Local Government Area of Anambra State, said she was yet to recover from the shock of being told that her husband, a genuine businessman, was killed by operatives of SARS on the allegation that he was a kidnapper.
She said: “We were in our house in Awka that fateful day in August 2017, when some gunmen broke into our house and took my husband away.
“They also took away almost all our property and told me to go and marry another man because my husband, who they were taking away, was as good as dead.”
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“They said my husband was a kidnapper. I did not know where they came from and I didn’t even know they were policemen.
“With the help of a friend, who is a police officer, we started looking for my husband. He took me to many police stations in Anambra State to find out if they had him, but none of them had him.
“We, thereafter, went to Akwuzu SARS office and that was where I saw three of the men who came and took away my husband.
“I had to brief a lawyer and we went to court. It was in court that the counsel representing SARS told us that my husband was dead and they alleged that he was a kidnapper.
“I dated my husband for a long time before we got married and I knew he was not a kidnapper.
“I lived in Benin Republic and that was where we knew each other and later relocated to Nigeria.”
According to her, the SARS operatives who came to her house collected all their household items, including a refrigerator, a television set, a generator set, one laptop, iPhone and modem.
Edozieuno prayed the judicial panel to pay her considerable compensation for the loss of her husband and their property.
She also demanded that the body of her husband be given to her for proper burial.
Chairman of the panel, Justice V. N. Umeh(rtd) assured Edozieuno that the petition was well received and that it would go into investigation and make recommendations, after which they would invite her.
