By Emma Amaize, Regional Editor, South-South
Netherlands-based President/Founder, Hope for Niger Delta Campaign, HNDC, Comrade Sunny Ofehe, was arrested by the Dutch Police, who raided his Rotterdam home in February. He was subsequently detained for 14 days for alleged human trafficking and forgery. The Delta-born activist was released after 14 days in detention. He spoke to Saturday Vanguard on his ordeal.

My arrest
The Assistant District Attorney who came with a team of police and secret agents claimed that I was being arrested, most especially for human trafficking, forgery, supporting illegal Nigerians with accommodation and political asylum advice.

As the interrogation continued, they even said they suspected I was involved in blowing up of pipelines in the Niger Delta, which was laughable and goes to tell you their desperation to criminalise me.

They started wire tapping my two cell phones since late 2009 and also tapped my office telephone and internet lines. They basically sat on all my conversations while separating any conversation they think could be sufficient enough to bring charges against me. In the cause of investigating me, they did some very nasty things, which I can only reveal should they bring the alleged charges to court.

That is the summary of what I know so far but the full content of their investigation, according to the Public Prosecutor, will be sent to my lawyer by the end of April and until then,  I can’t discuss much details about the case itself.

The Netherlands authorities are claiming you are involved in human trafficking, and were at the airport to receive a Nigerian man travelling with a lady under false passport. How true is this allegation?

I was not involved in any form of human trafficking of a lady as speculated by the public prosecutor. I was at the airport in Amsterdam to meet a friend who was only transiting Amsterdam en-route Prague, Czech Republic. I had arranged to meet this friend at the airport to discuss the possibility of inviting his boss to The Netherlands to attend a peace conference on the Niger Delta that I was organising in The Hague.

We should first note that this event happened in 2009 and the lady travelling with this friend was actually his girlfriend and I was later told by him while in detention that the Dutch border police convinced the girl to claim that she was being trafficked so that charges could be brought against him and in return, the lady would be granted permit to live in The Netherlands.

The lady, according to my friend, agreed and the case lasted almost six months or thereabout and in all this time, the man was in custody here in The Netherlands. He was eventually returned to Nigeria and the girl, according to reports, was granted residence permit and now lives in an undisclosed location here The Netherlands. I had nothing to do with this case.

This is all I can say about it for now since the case is still under investigation. More details will emerge when we finally go to court.

More than 20 policemen swooped on me

It was in the early morning around 5 0’clock on Tuesday 22nd February 2011. I heard hard banging on my door and the next thing a voice, saying police, and if you don’t open we will break the door. I immediately opened and they all came in; took positions in my house. They were more than 20 and some went downstairs and took positions in the different rooms.

My wife and kids woke up from the shock and fear and they started to tremble. I was immediately told to hand over my car key and my office keys. Some went to my car and others left for my office. They took my telephones and insisted that I must not call anyone.

They told me the charges against me and asked me to clothe myself. I did that and they took me away in their vehicle to the Schiphol Airport detention facility. I was kept there for three days without access to anyone and also no phone call except to my lawyer under very strict supervision.

It was a commando- styled invasion that brought embarrassment to me in the face of my neighbours who heard the banging on the door and also saw the people with their painted police van parked directly in front of my house. They searched my whole house for more than five hours, searched my car in the open and also searched my office. They went away with my computers, laptops, including that of my children, ipad, documents, receipts and anything they think could make sense to them.

They have still not returned all the things they took from my house. I insisted through my lawyer in getting at least my computers back and I finally got a call from them on Friday 25th March, 2011 asking for the passwords to the computers. You can imagine asking for passwords more than a month after taking my computers away.

When you look at the charges they now alleged against me and you compare with the resources and manpower involved in the operation carried out to arrest me, you wonder if it was justified. They could have as well come like visitors quietly and take me away without funfair. This is part of the harassment tactics to intimidate me and criminalise me even before we go to court.

What was going on in your mind all the while you were locked in?

First of all, this happened two days to when I was supposed to travel to Nigeria for the final funeral ceremony of my mother who was assassinated in Nigeria in 2007. The date for the funeral had been fixed for Saturday 5th March 2011 in Benin City and I was all set for the trip on the 24th February. The invitation for the funeral had already been circulated and maximum preparations had been put in place and then this raid occurred.

Of course, the first night was terrible and traumatic for me. It became even worse when I was locked down in isolated custody. They blocked my access to television, there were no reading materials and I was not even allowed pen to write.

I was there until the next day when interrogation started. I desperately tried to explain to them the significance of my trip to Nigeria and the need for them to allow me go and return to them but they refused, claiming to have so much against me. I was really paranoid and distraught, considering the colossal loss of not having to go for the funeral.

As the day went by, I settled myself and resorted to writing my prison memoir and at this time, I had been transferred to a penitentiary that was about three hours from my house. It offered better facilities but I was still in lock down with all restrictions upheld.

I knew that the plans of those behind the ordeal was to broke me down and eventually portray me as a disgrace to the struggle but I was resolute believing that God was using the occasion provided by the “attack” to promote and prosper me.

I kept my cool until they also came and said I was free to go home. I stayed precisely 14 days in detention.
The police have been making contacts with people and organisations that I am close to in the guise of investigating but the tactics is to scare them away from me or put a strain on our relationship.

I am very confident and I believe in the justice system of The Netherlands. I will go any length to clear my name. I have paid the highest price for the struggle with the assassination of my mother in 2007, so nothing can stop me from the cause.

You know that for the 14 days I was locked up by the Dutch police, they made sure that I had no access to telephone or even contacts with any other detainee so that I cannot communicate with the outside world. I didn’t even have access to my family because of course after tapping my phone for that long they knew what I can do to raise awareness on my ordeal. So, for the 14 days I didn’t know what was happening outside until I was released.

I was in tears the whole night after my release when I started going through the internet and saw how people reacted. The likes of Joseph Evah, Tony Uranta, Annkio Briggs, Chris Ekiyor, Nnimmo Bassey and many others that I can’t mention their names here. I praise these people because they trusted me and stuck their neck out for me even without hearing details of the charges.

There were other close people that I also expected this same level of trust from but they played the cautious game.