It Was 2Weeks Of Hell! Man, Okah Edede Shares His Ordeal in SARS Detention in PH

The GATES of Hell

People are talking of Akwuzu SARS and forgot about SARS Borokiri. I’m not downplaying the horrors of Akwuzu SARS, but I believe that it has a twin in Borokiri. Going down a nightmarish memory lane, I torturously remember the two weeks I spent there.

Even with medical evidence that I was SS, I was tortured beyond redemption. They wanted me to sign a prewritten statement, but I was able to convince them that it was better written in my handwriting.

The winning argument was that I agreed to confess to whatever they wanted, but I had a plan. My IPO (Investigating Police Officer) that himself intelligent, but to me he was an illiterate.

So, I agreed to whatever they want but inserted that I was ‘narrating this account based on the opaque and stygian Byzantine antics of fiendish inquisitors that have seared my free will with hieroglyphs of pain like Dante’s depiction of Hades.’

That above line saved me, and so I will never forget it. I still reminisce on that line and the lie I sold my IPO when he asked the meaning. I told him that fiendish meant friendly and Byzantine meant helpful and kind.

I also told him that inquisitors was another word for intelligent police investigators who do not use torture.

“Na wa for you o!” He said. “All these lecturer children na big big grammar una sabi.” But, he was happy. I have confessed to even robbing Benin CBN in 1967.

I didn’t write it as 1967, I wrote circa 67 and lied to him that circa 67 meant I had 67 members, and went ahead to list 67 fictitious names. He was ecstatic. He now had a confessional statement to blackmail my parents so he agreed to call my dad.

My dad came, and in a bid to make him pay N1.5 million so I won’t be wasted, showed my dad my supposed confessional statement. My dad read it and laughed.

The next day, my dad came with a lawyer and insisted to see the OC SARS. Fortunately for me, the O.C SARS was also an illiterate and fell for the explanation I sold my IPO about my so-called confessional statement.

My lawyer told them that the statement they were ecstatic about was trash and will not stand in court. A shouting match ensued and the 2iC came in.

Now, the 2iC had a law degree and was a fine gentleman. He read my statement and started laughing. He called my IPO a fool and told him that in court my statement will take him to jail and not me.

That was how my name turned to nwa prof in SARS. The couldn’t harm me anymore, my folks were now aware of my whereabouts and the 2iC kinda liked me after reading my statement.

Two days later I left that hellhole, but for all the two weeks I spent there, I witnessed evil. Names were called out at night and the bearers of those names were never seen again.

The cells of SARS Borokiri do not have ventilation. Cell 1 and cell 2 are for those with high probability of survival. Cell 3 was a 50-50 Russian roulette and cell 4 and 5 were for the condemned.

My first one week was in cell 3. After my written confession, I was moved to cell 5. When my dad (good bless his soul in heaven) came with a lawyer, I was moved to cell 1.

It was from cell 1 that I left that gate post of Hell. Till date, I still think of that place and the wretched and beleaguered souls that suffered and were wasted there.

This protest is personal to me. The government needs to close all SARS detention facilities, investigate the evils that went on there, and say never again!

I’m certain that O.C James Nwafor of Akwuzu understudied Oni in the act of wickedness and brutality.