New Telegraph 
Startling revelations emerged yesterday when the released suspects in the burning of the Rivers State House of Assembly alleged that they were offered N200 million to frame Edison Ehie, Chief of Staff to the suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara in the 2023 bombing incident at the Assembly’s complex.
The suspects who were recently exonerated and acquitted by a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, while speaking with journalists yesterday, during a press conference alleged that they were forced to implicate Ehie, in the arson.
The exonerated suspects, Chime Ezebalike and three others, told journalists they were arrested, detained, and tortured for about eight months for refusing to link the suspended Chief of Staff in the incident.
Speaking, Ezebalike who led the other acquitted suspects, explained that they were implicated because of their relationship with Ehie, as the three of them, Ezebalike, Kenneth, and Oladele, are known friends of Ehie and Sokari Goodboy, while MacPherson was allegedly an unfortunate victim of mere proximity.
Narrating the ordeal, Ezebalike said: “Starting from December 2023 we: Chime Ezebalike, Kenneth Kpasa, Prince Oladele Lukman, and MacPherson Olumini were individually and collectively subjected to arrest, intimidation, physical assault, psychological torture.
All of this happened between December 5, 2023, and January 16, 2024. “At some point, we were offered bribes in exchange for our freedom even though it was clear that we had committed no offence that warranted our being arrested and detained.
Three of us—Chime, Kenneth, and Oladele are known associates of Rt. Hon. Ehie Edison and Hon. Sokari Goodboy, while MacPherson was an unfortunate victim of mere proximity.
“Our ordeal began with the arbitrary arrest of Oladele Lukman on December 5, 2023. “On December 16, Chime and MacPherson were violently apprehended at Ogbakiri Junction along the EastWest Road while returning from a funeral in Ahoada.
“On January 5, 2024, Kenneth Kpasa was forcefully taken in GRA, Port Harcourt, by a convoy of no fewer than three Hilux vans.
“We were blindfolded and taken to the FederalIntelligence Response Team (F-IRT) unit along the Eastern Bypass in Port Harcourt, under the false pretence that the vehicle we were travelling in was stolen.”
