Four men, recently acquitted of charges related to the fire incident at the Rivers State House of Assembly, have made shocking allegations of bribery and coercion.
Chime Ezebalike, Kenneth Kpasa, Oladele Lukman, and MacPherson Olumini claim they were offered ₦200 million and an overseas relocation package to falsely implicate Edison Ehie, Chief of Staff to suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
The acquitted suspects revealed that a prominent PDP leader from Obio/Akpor Local Government Area approached them, urging them to alter their statements and name Ehie as the mastermind behind the Assembly fire. They were allegedly asked to “rewrite their story” and implicate Ehie, despite the trauma they endured during their six-month detention.
The men described their arrest and detention in December 2023 as dubious and harrowing. They claimed they were blindfolded, tortured, and coerced into signing false confessions. A serving member of the Rivers State House of Assembly allegedly visited them with a uniformed officer, pressuring them to implicate Ehie. When they refused, they were subjected to beatings and starvation.
The acquitted suspects are now speaking out to expose the lengths to which some political figures would go to manipulate the system.
They urge civil society, the media, and justice-loving Nigerians to resist the weaponization of state institutions against innocent citizens.
The allegations have sparked concerns about the broader political agenda and potential connections to other high-profile cases, including the murder of Ahaoda Area DPO, Bako Angbashim, and an alleged assassination attempt on the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Martins Amaewhule.
