Tina Amanda
The people of Bille Kingdom have called on the 6 Division of the Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt, to make official statement on the whereabout and state of health of their son, Damiete Alabo, a personal aide to the Amayanabo of Bille Kingdom who was whisked away from the king’s palace, alongside three others on 6 September, 2022.
The Public Relation Officer of Bille Kingdom’s Council of Chiefs, Chief Boma Dappa, who made the call in an interview with our correspondent, said the military has only released three persons that were taking away during the Army’s invasion, while Damiete is still in their custody.
According to him, several concerted effort made to reach out to the Army and inquire on Damiete’s condition have proved abortive as they are being denied access, noting that the military is claiming that the four person arrested have been released.
Chief Dappa further expressed concerns that the family and the entire Bille Kingdom are worried over their sons condition, while demanding the release of his body should he have been killed through torture.
“They have not come up with official statement. We have made concerted efforts to dialogue with the military to determine whether Damiete Alabo is still alive, because they were tortured and maybe on the process of torturing him he died or they took him to the hospital. They are yet to come up with any statement to that effect.
“As community leaders, we met on Saturday 1st October, the family of Damiete also came to interface with us, we told them we can not declare someone we are not sure of his state dead, we assured them this new week, we would still make contact with the military to know if they will come up with official statement.
“Whatever might have happened to him, the military should let us know. If he is still in their custody, they should tell us why they released three persons and left him behind. If he is sick or something, let them tell us wherever they took him to. If he is dead in the cause of torture, they should also tell us and give us his corpse let’s bury him.
“Our worries are that we have not been able to get in touch with the Army. All through last week, they denied us access to meet with them. This is a new week, we would still make some effort to see how we can reach them and get official statement from them.
“Prior to Army releasing the three persons, we met with them on a Wednesday 21 September, 2022 and the next day being Thursday 22 September, they told us they have released them and we went to tourist beach to pick them. When we got there, we discovered that instead of four of them, the military only released three persons.
“We inquired from the military why only three persons were released and they told us they have released all of them. If they claim to have released all the persons, where is the king’s personal aide Who particularly they whisked away from the king’s Palace?.
“If the Army released him, whom did they released him to, where did they dropped him, because if they had dropped him alongside others we would have also seen him. We want the military to make official statement to determine the state and whereabout of Damiete Alabo”.
