By Patrick Obia
On April 5, 2025, a virtual meeting of students sparked a chain of events that would forever change the life of Eyam Martins, a graduate of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Cross River State, UNICROSS.
The topic of the meeting was as urgent as it was emotional. Seven student leaders of the school were suspended for protesting and speaking up against a school policy that barred students from writing exams unless they had fully paid their fees.
Many believed the policy was too sudden, too harsh, and too inconsiderate, especially for students in their final year who were struggling to fend for themselves. Among those who spoke out was Martins Eyam, an ex-union leader whose courage would cost him his freedom.
By April 7, the unionist had recorded voice notes on a WhatsApp group, calling out the school management’s actions. He urged all students, both those who had paid and those who had not, to stand together and demand a reversal with a clear message that no one should be left behind.
“I urged all the students, both those who have paid and those who have not paid, to walk up to the management and see that they allow all their colleagues to write exams. Some students are fending for themselves,” Martins said.
But that same day, everything changed. Martins was summoned to the office of the Chief Security Officer (CSO) of the school and from there, taken to the Acting Vice Chancellor, Professor Francisca Bassey. Inside the VC’s office, they played the voice notes. Without hesitation, she ordered his arrest. No questioning, no fair hearing. She ordered Operation Okwok, Governor Bassey Otu’s newly formed security joint task force, to get him arrested.
Images of the Vice Chancellor of UNICROSS, Professor Fransical Bassey, and the incarcerated ex-student, Comrade Martins Eyam.
But he was never taken to court. Instead, he was driven past the police station by Governor’s Officer, Calabar, and straight to Afokang Prison without arraignment or any form of trial. He had no chance to defend himself. His phone was seized for more than two weeks, and no one knew where he was.
Salvation Finds Him In Prison
Inside the prison, fear and despair set in. Eyam’s worried most about his seriously sick mother, whom he ran helter-skelter to raise funds for her treatment before his unlawful arrest. He feared the news of his arrest would worsen her fragile condition.
“It was not a good experience because that very week, my mom was sick, and I was looking for money for her medication. I never wanted the news to get to her, so the illness will not degenerate into something else. She is the only woman that if anything happens to her, I will not take it kindly with anybody, which I told Madam VC and Operation Okwok Commander, but they still paid deaf ears to it.”
A chance encounter changed everything. Another inmate recognized him and mentioned knowing someone close to him. It was the inmate’s younger brother, Glad, a student of UNICROSS. Through the prison welfare unit, a call was made. Soon, news of his arrest reached the seven suspended students, and the story began to spread like wildfire. By April 23, public outrage reached its peak. The next day, he was released after 17 days of incarceration.
Before his release, Martins recalled a statement the Commander of Operation Okwok made to him. A statement that keeps ringing bells in his head.
“The Operation Okwok Commander told me clearly that ‘you think you want to speak for others, you think you are Femi Falana? His son graduated from NBA (sic), his daughter graduated from Police Academy. He has connections, he has money. You want to be VeryDarkMan; he has connections and money. You don’t have anything, we can do anything to you, and nobody will hear’. That was what he personally told me before they took me to prison.”
That moment stuck with him. It shook his belief in the justice system and left him contemplating a dark path, but, for the intervention of a cleric.
“Prison is where if you have done something wrong, and you are thrown there, there is 95% you might come out a better person but if have not done anything wrong, and you are thrown in there, you might have 95% chance of coming out to be the worst being in the society than the bad people out there. That scenario gave me that mindset to become the worst being when out, but the pastor there preached to me that I shouldn’t put that in mind, and that was not the reason I found myself in prison. That the plans have already been done since last year, but God just allowed it this time so I can be able to shame my enemies, and I should not harbor those things.
“That drama impacted me negatively because I started reasoning the path of going to join the bandwagons, the cartels, to be like them, as they say, ‘if you can not beat them, you join them’, and be like them, and at the end, use it against their children. After all, they’re not going to live forever. But when I heard the encouragement and ministration from that pastor, I just had to let that path go. I had to believe that in life, challenges will come to build you and not to weigh you down, and also to send you to the world.”
He enjoins those speaking for the voiceless not to give up irrespective of the challenges and trials in the quest to make Cross River State and Nigeria great, declaring that “we will keep fighting, if we die, we die. If we live, we live”.
He said the ordeal, though, has punctured his freedom of expression and his Digital Rights, but he is not backing out and no retreat, no surrender in speaking up.
CrossRiverWatch later learned that a Magistrate was made to sign a remand warrant without Martins being arraigned, since the custodial center will not accept any inmate without a Court order. Sources in the Nigerian Correctional Service confirmed this. His release by the custodial center was also because of a warrant issued by a Magistrate whom Martins never faced in Court.
IDP Beaten And Made To Sign Undertaking For Speaking Out
In early 2024, some fishermen, mostly Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Ikang community of Bakassi Local Government Area of Cross River State, were maltreated, harassed, and beaten by some soldiers of the Nigerian Army for doing their business.
The soldiers would come in their numbers on the community’s market days, confiscate and seize their goods without being questioned. An investigation launched by CrossRiverWatch revealed that the fishermen’s attempt to protest and find out the reason behind the maltreatment was met with beatings and brutality by the soldiers who captured a few and tortured them for days.
The confiscation and abuse in Ikang are similar to some of the series of human rights violations documented in a report by Human Rights Watch titled “Spiral Violence” by government security forces comprising the military, police, and intelligence personnel, known as the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) in Nigeria.
One of the victims, who gave his name as Effikpo, said: “So when the army started disturbing, it was taken to the village council to make an official report; we did that because we needed an urgent response, because we needed to go back to fishing.
Soldiers in one of their operations in Ikang, Bakassi LGA, Cross River State
“As the army kept coming to seize our fuel and other goods, at some of those times, the women would go to their barracks to cry, but instead, the army, in one of those cases, beat some of the women and chased them away. This has been happening severally times.”
In 2024, the Secretary-General of the Bakassi IDPs, Mr. Linus Bassey Asuquo returned from Correct FM morning program, where he had voiced out – calling for explanation, and a stop to the inhuman treatment, he was standing at Ikang main park, close to the Town Hall, when someone tapped him on the back and said the Platoon Commander and Captain in charge of Ikang, Bakassi was calling him.
He was ordered to move in the direction of the commander. After a series of interrogations, he was beaten, burgled, and taken into their custody, where he was kept for five days on bare floor.
It took the intervention of the State Security Adviser, Commander Odiong, and the member representing Bakassi in the State House of Assembly – Honorable Eyo Bassey to release him after he was losing his health, and a protest by women who nearly went bare. He was forced to write an undertaking never to participate in anything news, social media statements, press interviews, or a protest.
Voices Crippled
The Internally Displaced Persons in Bakassi told CrossRiverWatch that their freedom of expression and fair hearing have been crippled by the continuous government and security oppression and repression.
The Secretary General of the IPDs at the time, Linus Bassey Asuquo, before the soldiers manhandled him, complained on air and other fora about the suffering of the IDPs and returnees in Ikang.
“We use this fishing to take care of ourselves and our families,” he said. “Due to the suffering, we reached out to some NGOs for assistance. Some assisted some of us with 50,000 to put into the fishing business – buying hooks, nets, fuel, repairing the boats, and others. Those who could not get the N50,000 went and collected loans to be able to manage. Sometimes, the women will collect loans from their unions and give to the fishermen to buy tools, and later they will pay.
He questioned that: “Even if the seizure of these goods is for security reasons, why not disclose to us or liaise with the government on a way out, because we depend on this as a means of survival. When Bakassi was ceded to Cameroon, these were some of the things we were facing, and we decided to come down to Nigerian territory, and it is still the same thing,” he said, adding that his voice has been taken.
Cross River House Of Assembly Flexes Muscles On Private Citizen
In late May 2025, the Cross River State House of Assembly had summoned a content creator, Ejim John Ogbeche, who hails from Bekwara Local Government Area of the state, to appear before it and explain his assertion that his State House of Assembly member, Hon. Omang C. Omang (Bekwarra Constituency, APC), and other Cross River Lawmakers earn NGN6.8 million monthly.
The House, in a release on May 28, by the Information Officer, Itam Offor, adopted the resolution following its consideration of a Matter of Urgent Public Importance presented by Hon. Omang.
“On the 23rd of May 2025, I woke up to a false and malicious video publication made by one Ejim John Ogbeche, whose Facebook name is Ejim Johnny Agogo, a native of Ukpah (my village). The false and malicious video publication alleged that l, as a Member of the Cross River State House of Assembly, earn the sum of NGN6,800,000.00 as my monthly salary, excluding constituency allowances and sitting allowances.” Omang stated.
The Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Elvert Ayambem and Hon. Omang C. Omang – representing Bekwarra State Constituency
Contributing to the Matter, the Lawmakers unanimously condemned the video publication as “outright falsehood” and an attempt to tarnish the image of the House of Assembly and its Members.
They agreed that the author of the video publication should be summoned to offer an explanation as to where he got his information, adding that it will serve as a deterrent to social media users.
Assembly Has No Power To Summon a Private Citizen For Making A Purported Defamatory Statement – Human Rights Lawyer
While the summoning has raised public uproar, especially from civic space actors, human rights Lawyer, Barrister First Baba Isa, has questioned the powers of the Assembly to summon John Agogo over his statement of accountability.
“First, I don’t even know what is defamatory in saying members earn higher than they actually earn. If that is not the true position, you should simply issue a statement and clarify it. To raise such an issue on the floor of the House as something of any importance whatsoever, debate it, and even proceed to summon the individual for making such a statement portrays the House as a bunch of lazy people who truly have nothing important to do with their time,” Barrister Isa fumed.
He explained that the power of a House of Assembly to summon individuals is primarily derived from the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended). Specifically, Section 129(1) of the Constitution grants a House of Assembly or its committees the power to summon any person in Nigeria to give evidence or produce documents that are relevant to the subject matter of an investigation. The power, he said, is typically exercised in the context of legislative inquiries or investigations into matters of public interest.
“However, the context of summoning an individual for allegedly defaming a member of the House of Assembly introduces a different dimension. Defamation is a civil wrong and, in some cases, a criminal offense, depending on the jurisdiction and the nature of the defamation. The primary legal recourse for defamation is through the courts, where the aggrieved party can seek redress, such as damages or an injunction.”
Isa further explained that in the case of defamation against a member of the House of Assembly, the House itself does not have the constitutional power to adjudicate or punish defamation, as such matters are typically outside the legislative functions of the House and fall within the purview of the judiciary. He lashed that the House cannot be the complainant, the investigator, the summoner, and the judge in its case, which offends the basic tenets of the principle of natural justice.
After much pressure and backlash from the public and stakeholders, the House of Assembly, through the aggrieved member, Omang C. Omang Esq., withdrew the summons.
The stifling of free speech in Cross River is not always overt, but its consequences are clear: fear, silence, and a shrinking civic space. It discourages critical reporting, undermines democracy, and leaves the most vulnerable without a voice.
This report is produced by CrossRiverWatch in collaboration with the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) under its Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), as part of a project documenting issues focused on press freedom in Nigeria.
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