A 43-year-old man, Chinedu Eze, yesterday, narrated how he spent 14 years in prison for his alleged refusal to cooperate with police on an issue he claimed he had no knowledge about.

Eze spoke to newsmen at the 14th-year anniversary Gala of Silver Lining for The Needy Initiative (SLNI), a Non-governmental Organisation, targeting vulnerable groups in Nigeria.

The freed inmate said he was asked to testify against a policeman who had issues with his superiors.
Eze, who hails from Enugu State, said he was freed in May, 2019, after he was arrested and sent to Kuje prison by some policemen who had approached him sometimes in 2005 to serve as a prosecution witness to a case he had no idea about.

Narrating his ordeal, he said: “I was sent to prison because of an issue involving a policeman who had issues with his superiors and they wanted to punish him.

“Some policemen approached me and wanted to use me as a prosecution witness against him. But I told them that I could not testify against him because I don’t know anything about the scenario.

“One of the police officers, known as Abazie Emmanuel, told me that I have to cooperate with them or else I will regret it. At first, I thought it was just a mere threat. I never knew it would result in me going to prison.

“When I got to the prison, they hid my file. I stayed there for four years, no court, no files. It was a long tortuous journey that I had to stay 14 years under awaiting trial.”

According to Eze, he didn’t allow his predicament to deter him from furthering his education while in confinement.

He said he sat for the West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC) and thereafter obtained a B.Sc in Peace and Conflict Resolution from the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).

“When I was writing WAEC, I had no intention of furthering education in the prison because there was no university but I saw it as a providence arrangement because after two years that I wrote WAEC, National Open University and Christ Embassy came to the prison that they are looking for those who are qualified and those who have what it takes to be enrolled into the university. I happened to be one among 31 people. There are about 996 inmates in Kuje prison.

“So, I was among the 31 people that met the requirements to be given a scholarship. So, that’s how I was admitted to study Peace and Conflict Resolution.”

While stressing the need for Nigerians to disabuse their mind of the notion that everyone in prison was guilty of an offence, he noted that many people who are in prison shouldn’t have been sent there in the first place.

He appreciated the SNLI foundation for helping him regain his freedom, saying he had already lost before the organisation came to his rescue.