Justus Tamunoala Jim-Halliday, an alleged victim of torture by soldiers in Akiama Community in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State, on Monday, June 22, 2020, which was Day 2 of the lockdown imposed on the area, has narrated what allegedly happened to him that fateful day.

He has accused the Nigerian Navy of allegedly violating his fundamental human rights and dignity of his person in the course of his encounter with its personnel in Bonny, demanding that justice should be done by the leadership of the service.

Jim-Halliday, in a telephone chat with Kristina Reports, narrated his alleged ordeal in the hands of the soldiers, saying that his polite approach to them seeking permission to pick up a charger from a close by address to his house allegedly ended up earning him a savage brutalization by the soldiers.

The business developer, writer, event planner and seasoned entrepreneur, an Information Technology graduate of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, is the second son of the late Chief and head of the Jim-Halliday Chieftaincy House of Grand Bonny Kingdom, Late Chief Justine Jim-Halliday.

Soldiers drawn from the Forward Operating Base (FOB) of the Nigerian Navy, 146 Battalion of the Nigerian Army, personnel of the Bonny and Finima Division of the Nigeria Police Force, Bonny Division of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, and paramilitary personnel of the Vigilante Organization of Nigeria (VON) are part of the joint security team enforcing the lockdown on Bonny LGA imposed by the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike aimed at checkmating the spread of the novel coronavirus in the area.

Below is his narration of the events of that fateful day:   

“I was chatting with a friend that stays close to that Redeemed church at Akiama requesting her to lend me her phone charger, which she obliged me. I also stay at Akiama. I came out to my junction, from my junction I can see the Akiama junction and the military men there. I stood there watching as people were passing, if you are not wearing your nose mask they will either tell you to wear your nose mask or to go back. I was not wearing my nose mask so I had to go back to my house to get my nose mask.

I thought that instead of going to meet them, let me go through IT Williams Road because there is a road there too. So, instead of meeting them I can go where I was going and come back. Unfortunately, when I got to the junction by IT Williams Road, I did not see any road to pass through.

Someone I asked if there is any road there that I can pass through told me there was none and that those Navy guys were punishing people. So, having been told that they are punishing people I just respected myself and went to meet them. I went to meet them where they were sitting by the two storey building at the junction and greeted them.

I then told them that please I want to go and collect charger somewhere in front and also pointed the place to them. Upon hearing that they began to laugh saying that it is not even an essential matter like health issue or food but charger. We all were laughing, next thing one of them standing behind me told me to hold a nearby pillar that he wants to flog me with a koboko (horse whip). I didn’t answer thinking probably he was not talking to me or he did not mean it, only to feel the whip fly past my ear.

I turned to look at him. As he raised his hand to flog me again I held his hand. Before I knew what was happening, four others had surrounded me trying to brush me down, some were flogging me and all that.

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I was asking them what I did to warrant them treating me like that. We started dragging until we got to the front of John’s pharmacy, we were still dragging. One of them that has been hitting me with the butt of his rifle then cocked his gun threatening to shoot me. I looked at him and said “okay”. As I said that, their commander said for me to say that means there is something I want to do to them. He then told them to leave and said I should follow him. I followed him.

He took me close to that place where they are selling yam where there are stores. There was stagnant water there. He asked me to lie down inside the water. I lied down inside the water without saying anything. It was not long before one of their vans drove to the place and a higher officer, who I presume was their boss came down and walked up to me with another officer, and asked if I am the person. I said yes, he brought out handcuffs and cuffed my hands and told me to lay back down there inside the water. I did as he said without uttering a word.

After sometime, I saw William in their bus drive to the place. They stopped and Bright Hart and Williams Ogbah Agwu came down. They talked with the man for some time and then gave him a phone for him to talk to someone at the other end of the line. After taking the call, he now walked up to where I was and asked what my name was. I told him my name is Justus Jim-Halliday. The other guy that was with him shook his head and walked away.

He then told me that I should not worry that I will follow him to their barracks. I did not answer him. I was still lying inside the water. They told me to dip my head inside the water, I did; they said I should lick the muddy water, I did too without saying a word. I did not answer any of them.

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Their boss then left and came back about three hours later and asked me which cult I belong to. I replied that I don’t belong to any cult. He asked his men to check my body if they will see any tattoo. They checked and did not see any tattoo on my body. He then asked me that if I don’t belong to a cult and obviously I bear no tattoo, why…? That do I know why he came back? I said, no. he said it is because he just received a call, that they asked him to waste me that I was one of the problem in the kingdom.

I just laughed and told him that if the call he is talking about came from local government council that the only problem they I say I am looking for – which is not hidden as he can go on Facebook and check it – is that I am writing, asking them to ensure good governance, that is the only problem I have with them.

He then said that I was too learned for all of these things and how did it get to this point, that me telling people to do the right thing does not warrant this kind of treatment. It was at that point he told me to go back home. That was how I left that place.”      

Kristina Reports has contacted the Forward Operating Base (FOB) of the Nigerian Navy, Bonny, for its reaction to this claims and was yet to have a response as at the time of this report.