Pastor narrates how he was falsely accused by the police and imprisoned for 14 years

Chinedu Eze, a 43-year-old preacher with Mountain of Fire and Miracles (Worldwide), has described how he spent 14 years in prison after allegedly refusing to help the authorities with a case he claimed to be unaware of.

However, he said that via the efforts of Christ Embassy Church, out of the 996 prisoners, he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Peace and Conflict Resolution from the National Open University of Nigeria while still incarcerated after enrolling for the Senior School Certificate Examination.

Eze said that he created seven books and around 157 songs while imprisoned.

Eze, an Enugu State native, reported being released on May 2, 2019.

He continued by saying that some police officers had approached him sometime in 2005 to testify as a prosecution witness in a case he was unaware of, and that they had then arrested him and transported him to the Kuje Correctional Services.

He addressed the media at the Silver Lining for The Needy Initiative’s 14th anniversary gala, a non-governmental organization that works with needy populations in Nigeria.

Hauwa Abass, the organization’s founder, promised that SLNI would keep assisting the underprivileged and battling injustice in Nigeria.

Eze claimed that he was requested to testify against a police officer who had problems with his superiors. He expressed gratitude to the SNLI for assisting him in regaining his freedom, claiming that he had already given up until the group came to his aid.

He said, “I was sent to prison because of an issue involving a policeman who had issues with his superiors, and they wanted to punish him. Some policemen approached me and wanted to use me as a prosecution witness against him. But I told them that I couldn’t testify against him because I didn’t know anything about the scenario.

“One of the policemen, known as Emmanuel Abazie, told me that I had to cooperate with them unless I would regret it. At first, I thought it was just a mere threat. I never knew it would result in me going to prison. When I got to the prison, they hid my file. I stayed there for four years—no court, no files. It was a long, torturous journey that I had to stay 14 years under awaiting trial.”

Eze claimed that while being imprisoned, he did not let his situation stop him from continuing his study.

He claimed to have taken the West Africa Examinations Council’s SSCE before earning a bachelor’s degree from NOUN in peace and conflict resolution.

Eze said, “I got seven credits without English. I sat for the exam again the following year, and I got nine distinctions, including English and Mathematics.

“When I was writing WAEC, I had no intention of furthering education in the prison because there was no university, but I saw it as a providence arrangement because after two years that I wrote WAEC, the National Open University and Christ Embassy came to the prison and said that they were looking for those who were qualified and those who had what it takes to be enrolled in the university. I happened to be one of 31 persons. We were about 996 inmates in Kuje prison.

“So I was among the 31 people that met the requirements to be given a scholarship, so that’s how I was admitted to study Peace and Conflict Resolution.”

While stressing the need for Nigerians to disabuse their minds from the notion that everyone in prison was guilty of an offence, he said that many people who were in prison should not have been sent there in the first place.

Eze said, “My incident happened between 2005 and 2019. The SLNI came in 2017, and by that time I had given up. When they came, I had interaction with the founder, Hauwa Abass, and then she spoke with someone in her legal department, one Barrister Muhammad, who went to the court, located my file, and that was how my file was discovered. Muhammad later came to the prison and told me that this is the stage of my case, and then we picked it up from there. After about two years of my encounter with them, I was released on May 2, 2019.

“When you visit the prison, you will see something like 70 convicted inmates but 900 awaiting trials. A policeman who was indicted (while I was there) was released just about a month ago when the Chief Judge visited the prison. That policeman was simply set up by his superiors because of the issues he had with them and he spent about 18 years awaiting trial.”

“One of the books is about my experience, titled “14 years in prison”, I have the belief that I will meet people who will help me publish it. Also, my first album was launched in December last year. I wrote about 157 songs in detention, but I now have 160 songs.”