We were called names on account of the first part of this interview which we published on this ‘soar away’ page last week. Our consolation is that more than 99 per cent of members of the shipping community, who called, commended us for upholding journalism ethics and for unveiling the other side of the story. We are resolute on our stand on the travails of Mr Amiwero – that he does not deserve was has been meted out to him. We are aware that efforts are being intensified to persuade him to drop his petitions concerning Police brutality as well as his alleged removal as national president of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents. We hope that those efforts yield results and that he is persuaded to forgive- A tall one considering the fact that his wife and children were brutalized and detained as well.
Who organised your bail?
Nobody organized money to bail me out, my members are the people who bailed me out, they immediately brought N2million, they have the money and everything you can think of, we have responsible members. Nobody sympathised with me, my members are the ones behind me and I commend them for what they are doing, that is to show what they call leadership. I know that if many people should go through what I have gone through, they will not even know them because the kind of condition they gave me for bail was one that I have never seen before; even for criminals, it is never so; to the extent that there was the assessment of tax and they said go and pay N50,000 and so on, I have never heard it before, but I want to tell you that everything was made and done by the members of the Council of Managing Directors. Yes, people like Fadahunsi (retired ACG of Customs) sent his lawyers on Thursday.
Are you saying that he did not play any appreciable role?
They came in with a lawyer but our lawyer was the one that did the whole thing and all the monies were paid by the Council members from their own personal purse.
So what did Mr Fadahunsi do?
Fadahunsi sent a lawyer through Taye (Oyeniyi) and Oye Ariyo and they came on Thursday not Monday, everything about the whole issue was resolved on Monday, but because of the strict bail conditions which was about the tax clearance that was re-assessed and so many unnecessary bills for a charge that is not criminal and that I don’t even know, and for which I had to bring in 10 sureties. Even the police in Abuja said they have never seen that kind of a thing before, it is all a manipulation but as a leader you must accept it because if you are not great, there will be no connivance to unseat you. Like I said, Fadahunsi sent people over to help and some other people as well but majority of the money and everything was from our members, they are the ones who were there from Monday till Monday; we spent eight days there both my wife, my children and myself, for a country that I have contributed a great deal to her development.
How did this whole thing start; I mean, the move to unseat you as President?
Precisely, on the 28th of July, one of my members saw a notice by the long room that there is a forum of the Council of Managing Directors of License Customs Agents and I said no there is nothing like that in our constitution, and if you are using the National Council of Managing Directors of License Customs Agents, you don’t have any right because it’s a franchise and a registered name and you don’t have any right to use that name, there is nothing called forum in our constitution. So we said let us go down there and see what is happening, we got the paper signed by one Prince Obieze who have never been a member and one Prince Olukanmi Kunle; they have never been members and we don’t know them, so we said okay because we don’t want to go into the port to fight, we decided to follow it legally and we wrote a petition. So on the 28th of July; in the night we sent it to the Divisional Police Officer, he was not there, but the Divisional Crime Officer received the application and he told us that the issue was criminal and that we should come the next morning, so we left.
What is the link with NAGAFF in this whole thing?
Listen, the next day we came we met the ‘Aniebonams’ and the rest in the station there and I was surprised that what the hell is this man doing in the station here with NAGAFF members; nobody from ANLCA or any other group was there. We went again and put up another letter to the Area Commander (of the Police) on the same 29th of July which is the day of the meeting that they were calling for, we requested for an audience and we said we don’t want to go into the port and start to clash with anybody, what we want is to (as much as possible) be simple. We notice that there are people trying to impersonate the National Council which is a registered and credible body that has contributed immensely to the success of policies in international trade and the maritime industry. The people who are using the name of the Council are from NAGAFF, so we expect them to use their name to do whatever they want to do and not impersonate us.
How will you assess the role of the Police in this matter?
When we got to the Area commander; after the letters, he said we can go to court, but we said we expect you to investigate and know whether we are saying the truth, but he said that he will advice us not to go near the place where they are having the meeting that anybody who goes there will have themselves to be blamed, my members were about going there but I asked them not to. After doing all these, we now involved our lawyer and he put up a petition again to the assistant inspector general of Police in Lagos state informing him of the same thing, because that very day, they held their meeting and did what they planned to do with a very heavy police presence and no member of the council in attendance; all the people there are from NAGAFF except one or two from ANLCA.
What we did was to go to the assistant inspector general of police on the 30th which was the day after they held their meeting; the AIG received our petition and now invited them to come in and substantiate the allegation.
You have openly accused some individuals of master minding your arrest and….
(Cuts in) Yes on. Saturday, I was coming back from my office around 5.30pm to 6pm, I saw Udeh around my house and two other men pointing my house to them, so I called the AIG and one of the sergeants by name Austin that: I can see two members of these faceless group and I know they are trying to do something sinister. We have been invited to come back there on Wednesday by the AIG. And by Sunday, I saw two men in plain clothes when I was outside and they just came to me and one of them said ‘my friend you are under arrest’, and I asked them: who are you? When I thought of what happened the previous day, I was afraid of being kidnapped and I asked him to identify himself, but he said he didn’t have identification, I said okay : let me call my lawyer, but the man knocked off my handset and said ‘you don’t have any right to phone’, I said okay let me go to my house and put on my clothes because I was putting on shorts, he said I can’t go anywhere, this was around 7am when I was about going to church for our convention, there was nobody around; on the street so I started struggling until people gathered and when people saw him, they looked at him as a kidnapper. I succeeded in entering my compound and said if you are a police officer, let me go upstairs change and come back. But, before I could get back downstairs, the DPO of Trinity police station had come with almost 30 policemen, they came into the house with the connivance of the area commander, they beat up my wife, broke her hand and the bridge of her nose, they used gun to hit her on her waist and legs, they wounded my son and my daughter and they took us to the Trinity police station.
How true is the story making the rounds that you beat up the policemen who came to arrest you?
Thank you, I was surprised that by the evening of that same day, before seven o’clock they have told the whole of Lagos that I beat up a police man. So, I asked the police man where is your wound? If I was holding you at least your shirt would have torn, so why did you tear your singlet and not your shirt which is on top? Where is the mark of the assault? But they detained me, my wife and my children with connivance of the area commander after the AIG had invited this group for the case which I reported, the area commander and the DPO took the opportunity to arrest my wife and children and locked us up. The next thing was to charge us with many other things and carry us to the court without investigation, no nothing. On getting to the court they asked us for three sureties and N1Million naira.
What role did the police hierarchy play in all of these?
The deputy commissioner of police later called and said: those people are they injured, the DPO said: yes they are injured and he said take them to the hospital, and so they had to take us to a clinic by 10pm.
How do you feel, after all these?
All my years, I have never seen anything as evil as this and if this can happen to me and it is allowed to go in this industry, that means there is no safety in this country.
So, what happens next?
It will not go like that; the government is already looking into the matter.
*Concluded
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