Prison Series (2)
With the failing security in Nigeria and the fall of societal values, an increasing number of people are committing capital offences and receiving death or long sentences. Through the narration of the personal stories of the inmates, this Prison Series seeks to examine some of the social issues that have led to the incarceration of inmates on death row (also known as ‘condemned’) and those with life sentences with a view to educating the public particularly the youth about situations and choices that could be avoided.
Prince’s Story
Asked to describe himself and what he does, the first thing Prince Oniga would tell you is that he is an automobile engineer. This is to distinguish his talents and expertise from that of a “mere mechanic”. He can build a car from scratch if he is given the parts and can fix any car once he properly diagnoses the problem. It was the possession of these attributes that led to his eventual arrival in Abuja where he met his Waterloo.
Prince is from Arochukwu in Abia state and was raised in his village, Abang where he attended his primary and secondary school. After he completed his secondary education, Prince went to Aba where he learnt his ‘automobile engineering’ trade under the expert tutelage of his Uncle Okaru who he served for several years.
In 1994, Prince was repairing a car for a customer called Chibuzor who was visiting Aba from Abuja. During their conversation, Chibuzor told him about a Homer jeep in Abuja which belonged to the late former president, Abacha. “No mechanic has been able to fix that jeep” he said.
Challenged by this statement Prince said “I can fix that car. There is no car that I cannot repair. If you bring that car to me, I will fix it”.
Chibuzor had seen the work Prince had done on his own car and other cars and was convinced that this was no idle boast. However, it was not possible to bring the car to him in Aba. For starters, it could not make the long journey in its present state and in any case, it was unlikely that Chibuzor would be authorised to take the car out of the Federal Capital Territory since it didn’t belong to him. If his expertise was to be applied in this case, Prince would need to be taken to Abuja.
“Are you willing to go with me to Abuja to fix the car?” he asked. “I can arrange for your return to Aba when you are done” he promised.
Prince was game and in fact quite excited to finally go to Abuja and fulfil a dream he always had. People who went to Abuja from his village always came back wealthy and successful. Perhaps he might even find a way to remain in Abuja and seek better opportunities as there were definitely more prospects in the capital city than in Aba. Like others before him, he would also return one day to Aba from Abuja, a successful business man, he thought. The idea certainly appealed to Prince.
Chibuzor fulfilled his side of the bargain and transported Prince to Abuja to fix the car. He also provided his accommodation and feeding while he did the job. Prince’s confidence was not misplaced. He fixed the car satisfactorily which brought him to the attention of Daniel Kanu, the man who later organised a 2-million-man march for Abacha to become a civilian president. Daniel was impressed. No one had been able to fix that car and they had almost given up hope. The only alternative would have been to fly in a professional mechanic to repair the car but that was before they met Prince, the automobile engineer.
Daniel decided to engage Prince to repair all his and his friends’ cars. Of course, that meant that Prince’s dream of staying on in Abuja was instantly realised and unlike most people who arrived from the village to the big city, he did not even have to spend much time seeking employment or accommodation. Daniel took care of everything. His luck was in; that is, until he met Tochi.
Tochi was a car dealer who had a shop in Area 8. Around 2005, during the time when the former FCT minister, El Rufai demolished illegal structures in Abuja, Tochi’s shop in Area 8 was demolished and Tochi started operating freelance without any base. He still bought and sold cars and frequently required ‘work’ done on the cars before he could resell them. That’s where Prince came in. Their relationship spanned over a period of about 20 years so Prince completely trusted him.
One evening in 2016, a man called Kester was heading home after a long day’s work. He had stopped to buy a few things in a supermarket nearby and was about to get back into his car and continue on his journey home. His thoughts were preoccupied with the myriad of problems he had encountered that day at work and so was totally unaware that he had been surrounded by about five men brandishing weapons until he heard one of them say “Surrender your car key now”.
Kester hesitated for a second and one of the men hit his head with a steel object. Kester screamed. Holding his head to stem the blood gushing from a huge gash on his forehead, he did not wait to watch them drive off with his car. He dropped his key and ran for his life.
Two days later, Tochi called Prince around 6 or 7pm. He wanted Prince to help him fix a car he had recently bought. Prince was planning to go to Lagos on the night bus and told him that unfortunately he could not assist him this time. Tochi was desperate. He asked if Prince could come and meet him at Jikwoyi police station and then he would take him to the location of the car which was nearby. Prince finally relented and headed out from Gwarinpa where he had been staying.
Igbo people would say “odi ka si ya bulù mgbà ka àgbàwè” (if only it was a wrestling match, we could do it over). If Prince had another opportunity to do things differently, perhaps he would have stood his ground and gone to Lagos that night and his life and the lives of several of his family members would have been different today; but it was not meant to be.
Prince decided to meet with Tochi. He thought he could quickly fix the car and still make the night bus which would be leaving close to midnight. They met at Jikwoyi police station and Tochi took him to the place where he had left the car. He said he had just bought the car and it was not working, it was “cutting fuel”. Prince had his diagnosing machine with him and discovered that the car had a security immobilizer that was preventing the car from moving. “It’s the immobilizer” he said.
“Please fix it, I need to move the car from here” Tochi told him. Without any further questions or explanations, Prince went under the car to ‘fix’ the immobilizer while Tochi stood by the car waiting for him to finish.
That same evening, Kester was on his way back from Jikwoyi police station where he had gone to check if by any chance his car had been found and was told yet again that it had not. By a fortunate stroke of amazing luck, Kester looked up and saw a car that bore a close resemblance to his stolen car and asked the driver carrying him to stop by the roadside so he could check. With the bandage still round his head, he got out and examined the car and to his surprise it was indeed his car even though the number plate had been changed. He recognised all the dents and marks on it. Quickly he raised an alarm and a crowd gathered and began to chant “thief, thief!”.
Prince was still under the car when he heard a crowd of people shouting “thief! thief!”. He came out from under the car to determine what all the commotion was about, only to discover that he was actually the ‘thief’ in question and before he could say anything in his own defence, the people began to beat him up.
Prince was shocked and frightened. He looked around and called out to Tochi to explain that he was not a thief but Tochi was nowhere to be found. He had disappeared into thin air. He tried unfailingly to explain that he was just a mechanic called in to work on the car and did not know where the car had come from, other than what Tochi had told him which was that he had purchased it. His explanations fell on deaf ears. The crowd took him to Jikwoyi police station delivering slaps and punches as they went and he was transferred to the SARS branch for questioning.
After Prince told his story the police said they would need to track Tochi and this would cost N100k (one hundred thousand Naira). Prince’s elder brother gave the police the money for the tracking and they came back to report that they had traced Tochi to Asaba but they would need N500k (five hundred thousand Naira) to go and arrest him. Prince’s brother suggested that they share the cost of the trip with the police force so they gave them N250k (two hundred and fifty thousand Naira) to go to Asaba and arrest Tochi. One of the policemen suggested to Prince that it would actually be easier if he just identified anyone off the streets who they can arrest and question but Prince declined and said he simply couldn’t do that.
Eventually Prince was charged to the High Court for armed robbery and conspiracy. In court, Kester admitted that he had never seen Prince before and could not confirm that he was present during the robbery since he did not see the faces of all the men that evening. To date the police have been unable to locate or find Tochi and Prince has neither heard from nor seen him since that day.
Prince’s father died of heartbreak as a result of this case. Both of his brothers also died whilst pursuing the case and trying to secure his release. His only surviving sibling is a sister who lives in Umuahia and teaches in Abang Primary School. His wife has left him and his two children are being cared for by his aged mum in Abang. Prince was sentenced in 2018 and is currently on death row. He still protests his innocence.
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