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Gloria Okon, yes
the same drug pusher that was caught in 1985 with heroin in Nigeria and
died in very controversial circumstances. Abiyamo
did a good write-up on her and it’s a blockbuster and a must read. Enjoy it!
FULL NAMES
(alternate names): Miss Gloria Okon
BIRTH AND EARLY
DAYS
She was born in
1950.
HER ARREST
On the 22nd
April, 1985, a petite society lady, Gloria Okon, was about to board a Nigeria Airways
aircraft WT840 (Lagos-Kano-London) at the Aminu Kano International Airport,
Kano State when she was arrested with substances suspected to be heroin and
other hard drugs (the National Security Organization, NSO or Nigeria’s
secret intelligence agency is often mentioned in her arrest). Tucked in
internally were 56.70 grammes of the substances. She was also caught with the
sum of N20,000, 60 pounds sterling, $301 and 19,000 Italian lira. The
customs officers and drug law enforcement agents were very excited to have
nabbed her, not because they had caught her alone but because they would also
be stars of the show for a while as all the arrests were being made by their
counterparts at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos. But their
jowls of excitement were pangs of sheer agony for the 35-year-old Okon. Why?
The year was
1985 and anyone caught with drugs would face the death penalty, no stories.
That was the provision of the Decree 20 put in place by the junta of General
Muhammadu Buhari . She was going to die, and she knew it. Stunned and stupefied
at her sudden stare at death, Okon became an unwilling and helpless star before
the nation’s news-thirsty media. Newspapers and magazines contained her story
and the radios gave the chilly broadcast. For many who read the story
or heard the announcement, it was not a big deal they thought, she
was going to be executed like others. But then, there would be a twist in
Okon’s story that would turn her into the most mysterious drug pusher in
Nigeria’s history. What happened next still remains very bizarre even 30
yearsafter.
DEATH
On the 28th
April, six days after her arrest, the most unexpected happened: Gloria Okon
died in custody. From an ordinary ‘heroin suspect’, the sudden demise of Okon
led to what is now one of the most enduring narcodramas in Nigeria. She
did not just die, she died in very questionable and mysterious circumstances.
The Buhari regime would not bury the case and an investigation was launched
into the matter, with a judicial commission of inquiry given the complicated
task of unraveling all the circumstances surrounding the very suspicious death
of Okon who gave up the ghost at the Aminu Kano Hospital, Kano.
INVESTIGATIONS
The judicial
commission of enquiry working on the Okon case was headed by Justice CNO
Ubbaonu of the Kano High Court. It began its sitting in Kano almost three
months (precisely 5th Monday, August) after she died. Other members of the
panel were:
Wing Commander
PG Asemota
Tunde Oloko, a
university don
JI Obianwu, who
was the secretary
The case was so
serious that the Inspector-General Etim Inyang was mandated to ensure there is
a reasonable conclusion to the case and to make sure all the mysteries are
solved. The commission was to carry out three main tasks:
Make proper
inquiry as to the arrest and death of Gloria Okon
Determine
whether during the period of her arrest and custody, if any person(s)
contributed to her death through acts incidental to the case
Make suitable
recommendations
But that would
never happen: on the 27th of that same August, the military regime of Buhari
was toppled by General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and till date, no one knows
how it all ended and the demise remains a mystery. However, it must be stated
that before she died, Okon reportedly confessed and revealed a ‘big baron’, as
a matter of fact, a customs official said of her revelation:
‘If carefully
handled, she may lead us to the big brains behind the business.’
But before Okon
could even mention the name of her mentor or sponsor, she was stone-dead.
According to those who investigated her case and questioned her, the only clue
she left was simply the name ‘Bassey’. Ibrahim Coomasie was the commissioner of
police for Kano State and he stated that it was almost impossible to track her
mentor because Okon did not give the second name of Bassey or even an address,
so the investigation met a dead end. The address that was listed against her
name, 21 Cole Street, Surulere, Lagos was found to be non-existent.
However, it must
be pointed out that although Okon was just one of the many female carriers
arrested, she was the only drug mule very willing to cooperate and say it all,
revealing all information on her sponsors. But before she could utter anything,
she was gone. An autopsy conducted stated the cause of death as food poisoning.
There was no time Okon showed any sign of ill-health, she was quite healthy
when she was arrested as the public inquiry found out but according to Misharck
Okitiakpo, a customs officer who kept her in custody, Gloria Okon fell ill just
a day after she was arrested. Okitiakpo also explained that on the day she was
arrested (22nd), Okon made a request for rice and beans which she was given.
But on the 23rd and 24th, she was rushed to the hospital after she complained.
But that is
where Okitiakpo’s accounts stopped. He did not explain or was unable to explain
what happened from the 25th to the 28th when Okon finally breathed her last.
Okon had been in the custody of the Customs until the 25th when she was handed
to the police. Therefore, it is not precisely clear whether she was poisoned
while with the customs or under the police custody where she eventually died.
In an interview with The Guardian in May 1985, Coomasie said Okon had
changed saying:
‘…the late
suspect was not talking when she was brought to the police and did not make any
statement to the police, when the police took custody of Okon, she looked weird
and neither ate nor talked. ’
But later, she
was given some egusi soup by the police (egusi with what? Abi she drink the
egusi ni, police no tell us that one). The police also said she took some
bananas and tea after the egusi. Amazing food combination: egusi, banana and
tea.
The mystery of
Okon’s case was further deepened when no one showed up to claim her, not even
one relative showed to identify her as a suspect or even her corpse. According
to Babadisa Ciroma, an assistant commissioner of police (ACP) who was in charge
of Okon’s interrogation said no one paid her a visit while in custody or even
when she was admitted at the hospital. That was not all, 39 days after her
death Okon’s corpse remained unclaimed at the Murtala Muhammed Hospital
Mortuary where it was deposited. This prompted the police force Criminal
Investigation Department (CID) to issue a notice that her remains might be
treated as unknown if it not claimed after seven days of warning to the
general public. Apparently embarrassed by the mysterious death of Okon in
custody and to prevent a repeat, the government compelled state police commands
to transfer suspects and exhibits in cases of hard drugs to the Force
CID Headquarters in Lagos by ‘the most expedient means’.
The Nigerian
nation was supposed to hear from the judicial commission of inquiry by the end
of August and shed light on the case but by the end of August, a new leader was
in place and he was a military president: IBB. The late lawyer Gani Fawehinmi
attempted to resurrect the case but this put him on a path of direct clash with
Haliru Akilu and Kunle Togun, two of IBB’s most dreaded security agents. No one
was ever charged over the death of Gloria Okon.
THE
CONTROVERSIES
In the absence
of a conclusive investigation, so many tales have been spun by many so as to
fill in the gaps. According to some, Okon never died, the corpse presented was
all a ruse and part of a grand conspiracy. In June 2009, Professor Taiyemiwo
Ogunade, in an interview with THE NATION said of the Okon case:
‘Gloria Okon is
actually Chinyere, that’s her real name. She married Charles “Jeff” Chandler,
the fellow who killed Nzeogwu and was killed a day later. Chinyere, Maryam and
Princess Atta were young friends who hung out together. They all married into
the military, because the military was a proud and respectable profession then.
Charles Chandler, who was Tiv, married Chinyere who I think is from Imo State.
IBB married Maryam from Asaba and Mamman Vatsa married the princess. So
Chinyere became a widow and resorted to trading between UK andNigeria. And then
she was caught with drugs; Mamman Vatsa was the person who put Chinyere on the
next available flight from Kano to London – and then claimed that she was dead
by parading a dead woman picked out of the mortuary. Dele Giwa later found out
that she was in London having delivered a baby by another man.
He sent a French
photographer to the place and they saw Maryam Babangida at the event. Kayode
Soyinka brought back the photographs. Dele was sitting across the table from
Kayode examining the photos taken of “Gloria Okon” (Chinyere, Richard
Chandler’s wife) at the naming ceremony in London. Maryam Babangida was there.
And then a letter parcel was delivered to him and he said excitedly that it
must be from “Mr. President” referring to the discussions he had with IBB days
earlier. The bomb exploded and severed his lower abdomen; he died a few hours
later.’
Some others say
Dele Giwa knew that Okon was Maryam Babangida (or even IBB)’s drug mule and
wanted to blackmail IBB, which is why he was killed.Newswatch has denied any
link between their late founder who was killed by a parcel bomb in 1986.
Tom Mbeke-Ekanem
in his book, Beyond the Execution: Understanding the Ethnic and Military
Politics in Nigeria insisted the corpse sent to Calabar to Okon’s family was a
fake corpse and that the family returned it saying it was not the corpse of
their daughter, but that the authorities insisted the corpse was that of Okon.
The claim was that the real Okon was freed to go live overseas and replaced
with an unclaimed corpse brought in from the mortuary. The crazy controversies
around the case prompted the Federal Government to make attempts to unearth
everything thus launching the public commission.
According to
others, she was a drug mule for the former Nigerian First Lady Maryam Babangida
shuttling between the USA and Britain and she was killed so she would not
squeal. As it is now, the truth is hanging somewhere, and the only way I think
Nigerians will eventually get to know the truth is when a government comes and
re-opens the case and declassifying all the documents relating to the case.
Whether that will take 10 or 100 years, no one knows. But before then, the
story of Gloria Okon is one eerie chapter that will continue to haunt the
world’s largest black nation.
THANKS FOR YOUR
TIME.
ABIYAMO.
(Courtesy:
naijarchives.com)
REFERENCES
Ben Edokpayi,
Who Killed Gloria Okon, Newswatch, August 12, 1985.
Mohammed Buba
Marwa Delivered The Letter Bomb That Killed Dele Giwa – Professor Taiyemiwo
Ogunade, June 2009.
Trials & Triumphs:
The Story of THENEWS by Wale Adebanwi.
Beyond the
Execution: Understanding the Ethnic and Military Politics in Nigeria by Tom
Mbeke-Ekanem.
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