“We Were Offered ₦200 Million and Overseas Houses to Frame Fubara’s Chief of Staff” – Acquitted Suspects

Four individuals recently cleared of involvement in the Rivers State House of Assembly fire have alleged that they were offered ₦200 million and a relocation package abroad to falsely implicate Edison Ehie, Chief of Staff to the suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

Speaking at a press briefing in Port Harcourt on Monday, Chime Ezebalike, Kenneth Kpasa, Oladele Lukman, and MacPherson Olumini claimed a prominent Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader from Obio/Akpor Local Government Area approached them with the offer, urging them to rewrite their statements and name Ehie as the mastermind of the December 2023 fire.

Ezebalike expressed outrage at the proposition, saying, “We were asked to rewrite our story and falsely name Edison Ehie as the mastermind of the Assembly fire. This is after everything we have been through. We cannot be part of any nefarious plot, especially not after the trauma we endured.”

The men had been arrested separately between December 5, 2023, and January 5, 2024, and detained for over six months at Kuje Correctional Facility in Abuja before being acquitted in November 2024. They described their arrests as dubious, claiming they were blindfolded, tortured, denied legal access, and coerced into signing false confessions while held at the Federal Intelligence Response Team facility in Port Harcourt.

They further alleged that a serving member of the Rivers State House of Assembly visited them in detention with a uniformed officer and attempted to pressure them into implicating Ehie. Upon their refusal, they claimed they were beaten and starved. “They tried to break us,” Kpasa stated during the press conference. “When we refused to cooperate, they turned to beatings and starvation.”

The suspects also claimed that a former local government chairman offered them bribes, including ₦200 million and the promise of overseas relocation, in exchange for their cooperation. They said these inducements were repeated even after their transfer to Abuja, with some detainees allegedly promised freedom if they would frame Kpasa as the arsonist.

The men believe their ordeal is part of a broader political agenda and linked it to other high-profile incidents, including the killing of Ahoada Area DPO Bako Angbashim and an alleged assassination attempt on Rivers Assembly Speaker Martins Amaewhule.

With their acquittal now official, the former suspects say they are speaking out to expose what they call the political weaponisation of the justice system. “This country belongs to us all,” Lukman said. “No one should be tortured or forced to lie for political convenience. We call on civil society, the media, and all justice-loving Nigerians to rise and resist the weaponisation of state institutions against innocent citizens.”