‘It’s a shame I don’t know my husband’s grave,’ Widow tells Anambra panel

Mrs. Christiana Nnatuanya, the widow of one Linus Nnatuanya, who allegedly died in the custody of disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), in Awkuzu, Anambra, told the state’s judicial panel of inquiry on Tuesday she is ashamed that she can’t show her seven children their father’s grave.

Nnatuanya, who testified before the panel in Awka, said her husband was arrested at Ogbaru area of Anambra State without a warrant in January 2007.

The woman said she did not see her husband for about six days when somebody told her that police personnel arrested some people in the area.

The widow said she later found her husband in a SARS cell at Awkuzu.

She said the husband told her he was arrested on the allegation that he was a member of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).

Nnatuanya said: “The heat and stench were too much and my husband was allergic to heat. So they said I should go and bring N400,000, but I did not have it. I later raised N40,000 and on getting there, they said he had been moved to Abuja.

READ ALSO: ‘Tell police to release my husband’s corpse,’ woman begs Anambra panel

“It was one man by the name Ugochukwu Eze from Ebonyi who was arrested with him that told me that my husband had died in a SARS cell; since then, all efforts to see him or his corpse failed.

“People mock me that my husband died in SARS cell and there is no grave where I can point at where he was hurried. If only they can show me where they buried him, I can take the sand home for burial.”

The petitioner appealed to the panel to award the family a N50million compensation to cushion the pain of the loss.

She also demanded the prosecution of officers who were responsible for her husband’s death.

In response, Innocent Obi, of the Legal Department of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) Anambra, said there was no record related to the matter with the police and urged the panel to rule that there was no infringement on the part of the police.

The Chairman of the panel, Justice Veronica Umeh, ordered further investigation into the matter.

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