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HOW EVANG. HELEN AKPABIO LOST 3 BROTHERS IN ONE NIGHT

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Cross River based film maker and
founder of Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries, and Nigeria’s most popular female preacher, Evangelist Helen Akpabio lost
all 3 of her younger brothers on the same day in March.
The brothers, Joseph, Charles and Emmanuel Akpabio, were
killed on Sunday March 25th in front of their aged mother.
The killings – shocking, barbaric and reminiscent of a
mafia-styled gangland bloodletting – crime was allegedly perpetrated by a
combine team of the State Security Service (SSS) operatives and a Nigeria
Police squad.


The killing which was a culmination of a well-laid plan
started on March 24, when three anonymous white men came to Mbente Village in Nkari clan, Ini Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State,
the village where the deceased, Emmanuel and Joseph, lived. They (white men)
came in the company of one of one Benjamin Christopher Akpan Otu from Ifa
village of the same clan. The three white men allegedly came on a courtesy
visit, inviting youth leaders of the clan to come for a meeting concerning a
dam that is to be constructed on their land.
Joseph Akpabio, one of the youth leaders, invited people
in the village to welcome the visitors. The visitors requested for a formal
meeting the next day. The youths had no idea that Benjamin, whom they consider
a friend and who escorted the white men was a bait and that the other men in
the white men’s entourage were actually SSS operatives. The next day’s
rendezvous was fixed at Ikot Ekpene, which is about one hour drive from Nkari
clan.

Benjamin further suggested to Joseph that the meeting
should be in his wife’s house at Ikot Ekpene. Joseph unwittingly accepted. The
“Judas” went ahead by calling the Akpabio elder brother, Charles, a sailor who
resided in Calabar, and informed him of the meeting. The latter called his
brother to confirm it. To forclose any suspicion, the scheming Benjamin and his
white men invited a few other youths, who were executives of the Nkari Youth,
one Solomon Udoette, two others from other villages in Nkari and also the last
of the Akpabio brothers, Emmanuel.

The next day March 25, the invited youth leaders left
for the meeting not knowing they were on their way to their death. Joseph the
host of the meeting bought drinks and prepared snacks for the coming visitors.
He went the extra mile by asking his wife to buy petrol so that they could put
on light and fan while the meeting lasted. The white men and their escort, Benjamin,
called Joseph Akpabio to be sure he was there. They also confirmed whether his
elder brother Charles, who lived in Calabar would make the meeting and the
still-unsuspecting Joseph told them he was on his way.

Before long they were all assembled in Joseph’s
compound. The mysterious white men came in a truck driven by one Toppa, who
incidentally was a friend to the younger Akpabio, Joseph. Also in attendance
was Benjamin Christopher Akpan.
Shortly into the meeting, the white men called for an
interlude so they could hold a brief discussion among themselves outside. Just
as they stepped out, the generator went off. The host’s wife who went out to
check the cause of the power outage was confronted by about 20 policemen who
all wore black T-shirts. She witnessed the final betrayal as the white men
shook hands with the leader of the squad, a certain Noel Nduka before they
departed.

Then the nightmare unveiled. The policemen rushed into
the house rounded up those inside, handcuffed them and herded them into their
trucks. Thereafter, the true intention of the meeting began to unfold as
Benjamin Christopher Otu who was also handcuffed had his own handcuffs released
and he suddenly began to discuss freely with the police. The police wasted no
time in showing that they meant business: they shot all the six young men in
their knees. Then the bizarre happening began to take the shape of a vendetta,
as the Judas, Benjamin, replied that they should “go and shine in the grave”,
when questioned by his friend Joseph about what crime they had committed to
deserve such a treatment. With the traitor acting as their guide, the police
drove their victims to their village allegedly to find the father of Emmanuel,
Charles and Joseph with the intention to kill him also.

When the death squad got to the village, they gave their
traitor guide a mask to cover his face so as to hide his identity. Back to the
very compound where the meeting was held the previous day, the policemen
stormed the house searching for Chief Essien. However, their quarry was not at
home. As they ransacked the whole house, breaking down locked doors, the masked
accomplice (Benjamin) led them on with sign language, directing them to
pressurize the Akpabio’s mother, madam Atim to produce her husband. When that failed,
they dragged out two of their victims Charles (whose broken legs had been tied
wit rafia ropes) and Joseph and dumped them by plantain trees. The two elderly
women, one, their 72-year-old mother, the other their uncle’s wife, aged 82
years cried, begged the policemen to set them free and to tell them what their
crimes were. At that point Joseph did manage to tell his mother that Benjamin
had set them up using the dam project. The two boys were shot before the very
eyes of their mother and their uncle’s wife while their other brother,
Emmanuel, and the other three young men were taken away.

Later, Benjamin confided in one Peter Ekpenyong Inuaeyen
that the four boys who were not killed were being detained at the State Police
headquarters, Ikot Akpan Abia. He also gave out some phone numbers which
include that of Noel Nduka, the SSS officer who allegedly shot the brothers.
When a call was put through to him, Nduka allegedly
confirmed that he killed the three brothers, claiming that they were
terrorists. According to reports, when asked about whom they had terrorized,
the SSS operatives was alleged to have claim that he has the right to kill
anybody he is asked to kill.

How the other captives met their end gave a picture of a
mindless cruelty. By the next day, March 26, the remaining four young men who
were still alive—Emmanuel Akpabio, Solomon Udoette and two others – were driven
to Obot Akara and then shot at the boundary of Nto Edino and Obot Akara at
about 1a.m. of March 27, 2012. Benjamin, the Judas, again called his confidant,
Peter Ekpenyong Inuaeyen and told him that “all are gone”.
Noel Nduka, later told a local newspaper that the police
team encountered some robbers who operated between Abia State and Akwa Ibom and had killed all four of them.

Meanwhile, two weeks before the tragedy, Benjamin, the
deceiver, came with his accomplice, Toppa, and told the late Joseph of how the
youths of the land were vandalizing the property and equipment for the dam.
Benjamin insisted that since Joseph is the youth president he should call
Charles to accompany him to go and pick some of those things for safety.
Charles later told his wife that Benjamin did a strange thing by filming them
with his camera phone while they were doing that. Today, the police are using what
Benjamin recorded as their evidence to the fact that the boys have been
stealing from the dam.

Killed and abandoned by the road, efforts made by the
family of Chief Essien Akpabio to have the corpses of the murdered young men
buried decently has been futile. A lawyer, who went to see the DPO of Obot
Akara, was sent back empty-handed by the recalcitrant police boss.
At the moment, it is alleged that Noel Nduka is still
insisting that he must kill Lady Apostle Helen Ukpabio whom he claimed has been
aiding the kidnappers. He has also sent threat messages and calls to the only
brother of the deceased, Henry Akpabio who is resident in UK. He is alleged to have boasted that “they” are commissioned
to eliminate him and the entire family of Chief Essien Ukpabio.

 

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