Kubiat Akpan’s Lawyer Blames Police For His Torture and Death

Inibehe Effiong, counsel for a young Nigerian graduate, Kubiat Akpan allegedly beaten to death in the custody of Akwa Ibom police has accused the police of lying about the circumstances surrounding the death of the deceased.

SaharaReporters had reported how Kubiat, said to be the only son of his parents, was arrested on Sunday, August 29 along with his friends for alleged armed robbery by policemen from B Division, Ewet Housing Estate in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

He was then taken to the cell where he was allegedly beaten to death.

The state police command subsequently released a statement through its Public Relations Officer, Odiko MacDon, linking Kubiat to armed robbery and alluding that he attempted to evade arrest.

The police also claimed the deceased person had complained about ill health while in their custody.

However, Effiong in a statement on Saturday described the police statement as nothing but fiction.

“As the lawyer representing the family of Kubiat Isaac Akpan, I have been inundated with messages and calls from members of the public seeking my response to the press release issued this morning by the Police Public Relations Officer in Akwa Ibom State. I did not initially intend to respond at this time to the press release but the calls and messages have become unbearable. This preliminary response has thus become imperative,” he said.

Effiong continued, “To be specific, MacDon’s allusion to cultism, armed robbery, and evasion of arrest is nothing but pure fiction. He should tell the public what he hopes to achieve by concocting this fictional narrative.

“Kubiat was never under investigation for alleged armed robbery or cultism or any criminal case for that matter. It is astonishingly provocative that the PPRO asserted falsely, without any basis, that the deceased was evading police arrest.

“Kubiat was not sick and had no pre-existing medical condition prior to his arrest on Sunday, the 29th day of August, 2021. The claim by the PPRO that Kubiat complained about ill-health while he was at B Division, Ewet Housing Estate, Uyo is uncanny and preposterous.”

Describing the statement by the police as irresponsible for compounding the pain of Kubiat’s family, he said, “The deceased family is grieving and inconsolable.

“The minimum that the PPRO should do is to speak nothing but the truth. The aged parents of Kubiat are crying and weeping endlessly over the murder of their only son who just graduated from the University of Uyo where he studied Architecture.

“The Akwa Ibom State Commissioner of Police has not visited the family of the deceased. Yet, the PPRO decided to dance on the corpse of Kubiat Isaac.”

He also described the claims made by the police as “a very irresponsible behaviour by SP MacDon who knows or ought to know that lying against the dead is evil, vicious and against African culture. His statement has made things worse for the deceased family.

“We are considering filing a petition at the Police Headquarters in Abuja and the Police Service Commission against SP MacDon.”

A family member of the deceased identified as Christiana Sunday had posted on Facebook what he titled, “A CRY FOR JUSTICE.”

He wrote: “Kubiat (FB:pdp Icon), a Uniuyo student waiting for NYSC enrollment this coming November was arrested by Nigerian Police (B division Ewet Housing estate) on Sunday at Eni stores by 7PM, accusing him of arm robbery. They took him to the station without filing the case they said he had committed, not even asking him for his name and address.

“They put him in a police cell and beat him to death, that same night. Oh, what a tragedy. On Monday, friends who heard that he was arrested went to search for him at different police stations (including B division) but they denied his arrest.

“It was after his aunty put a call through to people in govt, and the commissioner of police was questioned, that was when they realised that it was the police squad from B division that arrested Kubiat, beat him, took him to police Headquarters Ikot Akpan Abia mortuary without the notice of any of his relatives, hmmmmm.

“What a world, they wasted his life just like that. Nigerian police have to be questioned. Justice must be served. Oh, Akpan. The only son of his parent. So after they have killed you, they realised that they arrested the wrong person. After the struggles, challenges you went through at Uniuyo and they couldn’t allow you to enjoy a bit of it. It shall never be well with those policemen. Amen

“Police are denying that they didn’t kill him, that Kubiat Isaac Akpan had a health issue, now they want to conduct an AUTOPSY to see if this is true and the doctor is demanding N200,000 to do that. Let the policemen pay for the autopsy, where will the sick parent get 200k and pay? It can never be well to those policemen.”