By CrossRiverWatch Admin
Mr. Etim Bassey Asuquo alias Titi sentenced to Death by hanging by a court in Calabar (February 2018) for allegedly robbing the member representing Calabar Municipal in the Cross River State House of Assembly, Hon. Efa Esua has said he is innocent of the accusations and that he is going to appeal the case.
The man who spoke to CrossRiverWatch through a prison source narrated what happened; “I don’t know the man (Efa Esua) but my senior brother use to work for him and I have once worked for him too during the election that took him to the Assembly, because they know I command a lot of influence.
“I brought boys to work for him and we did the job, he won the election and I went my way. I hear his name Efa Esua, since after the elections we have never had any business dealings again.”
Titi recounted that his travails began when a guy in his area took his younger brother’s phone and he tried getting it back.
“So there is this guy they call Banny in my area. He collected my younger brother’s Infinix phone. I told him to return the phone and he was talking to me anyhow. That time I was the number one in Vikings. I told Banny that in your time I didn’t treat you this way, and he started talking to me anyhow. I reported the matter to his mother, and one day I met him and forcefully collected the phone from him and he threatened me that I was going to see something.
“I was at home that day to see my people and after eating with my daughter and was preparing to go to a burial, I saw Banny walk in with some policemen in plain clothes and they said they were arresting me for robbing Efa Esua, they took me to Federal Housing Police Station. At the station, they told me that I and 6 other persons had robbed Efa Esua and that we collected from him 480 thousand naira, a Samsung galaxy phone, a gold ring and necklace and documents worth one million something.”
Furthermore he revealed that when he had the opportunity to see Hon. Esua, “I told him my name and told him I was innocent and have no knowledge of what happened. I told him to go to any native doctor to kill whoever stole from him and kill me if I was involved, but he said I have been in prison and therefore not afraid of dying. He said when he was being robbed someone called my name, therefore I know something about it.”
He said he was charged to court and has been in Afokang Prison for 2 years until his conviction in February 2018.
When CrossRiverWatch spoke to the lawyer that represented the accused in court, one Barrister Godwin, he simply said “I can’t speak on a matter in court. We are working on the matter, and we’ll appeal the judgement.”
Meanwhile, a civil rights lawyer and founder of Basic Rights Counsel in Calabar, Barrister James Ibor has also told CrossRiverWatch that his organization is moving quickly into the matter to seek a review or retrial because they feel strongly that the verdict of death sentence for robbery is disproportionate.
As at the time of filing this report, all effort made to contact Hon. Effa Esua were not yet successful.
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