I’m the elder brother of Gospel Kinanee. We are from the same parents.
Tell us what happened to your brother.
Gospel went missing in 2007. He was around 14 years old when the incident happened. On that fateful day, we were all together during the day. In the afternoon, he went out to play with his peers. He came back home to eat and later went out again to play, but he never returned home.
We noticed he was missing around 8 pm or 9 pm when he did not come back home to sleep. My parents and everyone else were worried. We searched everywhere for him, but we could not find him.
Normally, when he goes outside to play, he comes back in the evening, but on that particular day, he went missing, and we could not find him. We waited till the following day for him to come back home because we thought maybe he had gone home with one of his friends to pass the night.
We continued the search the next day, but we still could not find him. We searched the entire community for him but could not find him. We thought it was a joke, but when the search continued for four days, and we still could not find him, we became more worried.
We searched everywhere, including police stations, hospitals, and prison yards. His disappearance led to the death of my father and mother. They both died the same year when the pain became too much for them to bear.
How did you find him?
As years passed by, we became tired of looking for him and gave up because we thought he was already dead. But to my surprise, early in 2025, I got a call from someone saying that some people were looking for me and that they had found my brother, Gospel.
I told them that my brother was dead because we had searched for him for years and given up, only for someone to call me 18 years later, saying he had been found.
So, I did not believe the person, but they told me that he was not dead and that they had found him in the Port Harcourt Correctional Centre.
They insisted that I come to the correctional centre and see him. I still didn’t believe them because we already thought he was dead, and maybe it was another person they saw and mistook for my brother.
They told me that he was discovered in the correctional centre by a group of lawyers who were on a prison welfare and inmate rehabilitation mission. They said I should come because my brother would be released to me.
When I got to the lawyers’ office, I met the team lead, Cyrus Onu. He interviewed me, and we completed some documentation. They took me to the Director of the Correctional Centre.
Immediately I got there, I saw my brother outside, but he could no longer recognise me. I broke down in tears because I recognised him, and he was not looking sane at all. He had been in prison for 18 years.
He was locked up there when he was 14 years old, and he is now 32 years old. He could not recognise anybody. He had lost his sanity, but we still recognised him. He had become mentally unstable. He was not conscious of his state of mind, and he could not respond properly to the questions we asked him.
Was he having any form of ailment before he went missing?
My brother was very normal and agile. There was nothing wrong with him before his disappearance. He was a very healthy and strong boy, but when he got to prison as a little child of 14 years, we did not know what they did to him. He has now become mentally ill. We do not know what happened to him for him to become unstable.
How was he released?
After meeting him at the correctional centre and following the efforts of the lawyers, the Chief Judge of Rivers State granted him a pardon, and he was released to us.
He was among those the Chief Judge granted clemency, and he was released after spending 18 years in prison. We celebrated his release. We were very happy because we thought we had lost him forever.
How is his health now?
Since his release, we have been taking care of him with the help of the lawyer, Cyrus Onu, who helped secure his freedom. He and his colleagues have been assisting us with his medical bills.
We are trying to help him regain his sanity, but the improvement has been slow. However, his health is far different from what it used to be. They conducted almost 50 tests on him at the hospital. We spent a lot of money.
They discovered that he was okay in other areas apart from his mental condition. He is now living with me. We are just praying that God heals him, restores his sanity, and helps us get justice for what happened to him.
But how did it happen? Was he arrested by the police?
He does not know how he ended up there. However, because of his current state of mind, we have not been able to find out from him what really happened. He can no longer recall anything, recognise his current situation, or even respond properly to questions.
What explanation did the police or the correctional authorities give you about his imprisonment?
They don’t even know the reason he was locked up. They could not give us any reason for his incarceration. I have learnt a lot from this case. Many people who are imprisoned are just dumped there, and the correctional officials do not even know why they are in custody.
They don’t bother to ask questions about why many people are incarcerated in their custody. They just dump people there, and people spend years suffering for offences they know nothing about.
Till today, they have yet to give us any explanation for his incarceration. There was not even a case file for him when we requested information about his offence. He was just dumped there.
What class was Gospel in when this incident happened?
He was attending Community Primary School and was in Elementary Three before his disappearance. The boy lost everything and can no longer live the life he dreamed of. He can no longer live the life the family wanted for him.
What losses did the family incur as a result of his disappearance?
Gospel would have been useful to himself, the family, and the community because that boy was very agile before he went missing. He was very good. He was someone who, if properly trained, would have become successful in life.
They just wasted his life. He would have been very useful. We lost a lot because of his disappearance. We were hoping that, as our lastborn, he would be useful to us and contribute meaningfully to the development of the family.
It was not easy for us. We spent a lot of money. My parents died because of his disappearance. My father sold many of his properties to look for him. He sold a massive farmland for just N300,000, which he spent searching for him.
There is nowhere in Ogoni and Port Harcourt that we did not search for him, but we could not find him. My father lost control and fell sick before dying. The agony was too much, and his disappearance shattered the family. Our family is no longer the same.
Are you happy that he is back home despite being mentally ill?
It is a mixed feeling for all of us. While we are happy that he is still alive, we are sad about his condition. That is why we want justice for everything they have done to him.
Any time I look at him, I don’t feel happy because those who were born around the same time as him, those he grew up with, are now doing far better than him.
They now have their own families and are useful to society, but our own brother is struggling with life. I’m not happy seeing him like this. We are just thanking God for keeping him alive.
Do you plan to get him married or help him earn a living?
If justice is done, because Cyrus Onu and a group of other lawyers are fighting for us, we have sued the correctional authorities and the state government over the incident, and we are hoping to get justice.
We are going to be in court on Monday. If we are able to get justice for him, it will help us rehabilitate him so that he can be useful to himself and society. We will also look for something meaningful for him to do so that he will not entirely lose out.
Did you receive any form of compensation from the correctional authorities, or did they apologise?
Nobody gave us any compensation, and neither did they apologise. Rather, we have been receiving different forms of threats from prison officials. They have been threatening us to stop speaking to the media and trying to get justice for our brother.
I don’t know how they got my number, but they have been calling me and seriously warning me against speaking to our lawyers and using social media to fight our cause.
They said we should instead be thanking them for helping to release my brother. They said, “Why are you doing all these things to spoil or name and put us in trouble?”
They said what I’m doing now would put them in trouble and that I should stop talking about the issue and forget about getting justice for my brother.
But I ignored them and told them that my brother was in their custody for 18 years, and they did not even bother to look for his family members.
I told them that we are not trying to put anyone in trouble, but to get justice for my brother. I also directed them to our lawyer and told them to stop talking to me. We are now scared for our lives because this is Nigeria, and anything can happen.
Do you allow Gospel to go out and interact with other people?
For now, he stays indoors apart from going to church with us and visiting the hospital. He is recovering gradually. He is happy to go to church with us.
We are taking our time to ensure he fully recovers. We allow him to stroll outside, but under supervision.
What are your demands?
We sued them because it was not easy for such a young boy to spend all his years imprisoned without being charged with any offence. We need justice. They must pay for leaving him there carelessly and dumping him without looking for his relatives.
He is a human being. For many years, he was left suffering. They did not bother to look for his relatives. So, they must pay.
They must compensate him for the damage they caused him and his family. He needs shelter and proper care, and he has to start life all over again.
