Suspected kidnap kingpin, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike aka Evans, performed a little drama on Monday, as he refused to alight from the prison van at the premises of the Igbosere High Court in Lagos.
When the case was called, Evans refused to come down from the Black Maria, until the court ordered the prison warders to bring him into the court.
When he was eventually brought into the courtroom, his back was observed to be stained with sand, and his T-shirt torn around the right shoulder area. He was also barefooted.
Now in the dock, Evans complained to Justice Adedayo Akintoye that he was being maltreated in the prison. According to him, he is not allowed to see his visitors.
“I have a complaint to make. Since I have been in the maximum prison, they have been maltreating me; no visit; they don’t feed me well; I have an eye problem and I cannot see far,” he said.
The warder from Kirikiri Maximum Prison countered his accusation, saying that Evans is being taken care of like every other inmate. He also said that the detainee has been seeing a doctor since he complained about his health.
“We have been treating him well; he is well fed and people have been visiting him. The doctor has been checking him; in fact, the doctor came to check him yesterday and even this morning before coming to court. Because he was saying he can’t be in court that he is not feeling fine, but when the doctor checked him yesterday and this morning, the doctor said he was healthy and that he sees no reason why he can’t be in court.”
But Evans interrupted the prison warder that it was a nurse that came to check him, not a doctor, adding that was only allowed one visit.
The second defendant’s counsel, Ogedi Ogu, also told the court that his client has the same complaint.
In her response to the alleged maltreatment of the accused persons, the State Director for Public Prosecutions (DPP), Ms. Titilayo Shitta-Bey, said that Evans was just making it up, insisting that he is being treated well, and that a doctor has also been attending to him.
“That is the same thing he said before an Ikeja High Court and we wrote the prisons and they wrote us back that he was being taken care of like every other inmate.”
Justice Akintoye, however, asked the prisons officials to ensure that he was well taken care of like the other inmate, adding that the accused perons are still presumed innocent until proven guilty.
After the court rose, Evans broke down in tears lamenting that he was being maltreated. “What have I done to you people? They have been beating me; no good food. I have been locked up in one place since August 30 last year. Why are they taking my case personal?” Evans asked.
“Let me face my trial alive, why do you people want to kill me?” he further asked.
His counsel, Olukoya Ogungbeje, had sent in a letter that the court should stand down the case as he was on his way, but the prosecutor ,Shitta-Bey, told the court that it might be another tactic to delay the matter again, adding that at the last adjourned date, he had also sent in a letter that he had an appeal on March 22, before the Court of Appeal.
She said: “After he sent in a letter that he had an appeal before the Court of Appeal, we later discovered that the appeal was already taken on March 20 and not on March 22.
Evans was arraigned alongside Joseph Emeka, Linus Okpara and Victor Aduba on a two-count charge of conspiracy and unlawful capture, preferred against them by the Lagos State prosecution.
According to the charge, Evans, alongside the three accused persons and others who are still at large, allegedly conspired amongst themselves and unlawfully abducted one Uche Okorafor on November 21,2014, at FESTAC Town, Lagos, and demanded a ransom of $2million.
According to the prosecutor, the offenses committed are punishable under sections 409 and 269, of the criminal laws of Lagos State 2011.
At the last adjourned date Justice Adedayo Akintoye dismissed the defendant’s application to quash the charge against them.