ALL that Pastor Joshua Esosa did was to reluctantly make the hour-long trip to the residence of his former wife’s home to attend to the children so she can leave to go get what he thought was an urgent medical attention at the hospital. But the Austrian policemen who were waiting in the shadows that night pounced on him as soon as he rang his ex-wife’s doorbell, alleging that he was the drug-dealer they were looking for while a shocked Esosa desperately pleaded his innocence.
The policemen who searched Esosa on the spot found no drugs on him, but they found about 600 Euros, along with a check-card belonging to his church bank account. 400 Euros of the money on him had been withdrawn prior to his commute down to his wife’s place, he told the policemen who had concluded it was drug money, saying that they can easily verify the truth by contacting the bank for the details of the transaction.
But Esosa who arrived at his ex-wife’s house about midnight on that ill-fated night would have the course of his life altered forever, as the police hauled him away as a drug suspect. The rest of Pastor Joshua Esosa’s story has been an unbelievable story of suffering for a crime that he says he nows nothing of.
“At about 11pm on this day, my wife acting under police duress, called me and said
that she was sick and that I should come home to take care of the children so that
she could go to the hospital,” stated Mr. Esosa in a long S.O.S. letter pleading for intervention from everywhere from the Nigerian presidency to the National Assembly and the Nigerian Embassy in Austria.
From February 3 2011 through September 23 2011, the pastor was detained by the Austrian authorities for a crime he says he did not commit.
“I spent about 8 hellish months in that prison, from February 2011 to September 2011 for a crime I had not committed. I was traumatized for a sin I knew nothing about probably because I am a black man and a Nigerian. I nearly went mad for what I never imagined in my life. Over my dead body that I will deal on drugs as a man of God, my yes remains yes, I am not guilty. As I speak now, I do not know on which ground or why I was released because according to the sentence I was not supposed to have been set free before May 2012.”
Initial efforts by Esosa to get the Nigerian Embassy in Austria involved in freeing him from his predicament proved abortive, as he did not hear any response from the Embassy until after his July 2011 sentencing that followed what he saw as a kangaroo trial.
Shortly after a hasty trial sent him to jail, Pastor Esosa was suddenly notified while in jail that he had 5 minutes to pack his belongings and leave. Sympathetic fellow inmates helped him put a few possessions together and gave him 50 Euros for pocketmoney. No reason was given for his sudden release after starting his sentence.
Esosa’s ex-wife also shared what she described as a torturous experience in the hands of the Austrian authorities, after the men barged into her home on that February night looking for her former husband. After the learned that he didn’t live there, they made her concoct the story of the need for the father of her children to head down so she can get medical attention at the hospital.
Today, Joshua Esosa who has taken his case to the Austrian Appeals Court for a redress is petitioning the Nigerian government to come to his defense in ensuring that justice is done, although the Appeals Court has ordered a retrial at the lower courts.
“One thing I want the world to know,” said Esosa in his petition, is that no matter the evidence manufactured against me, I am innocent. No matter the level of conspiracy against me, I am guiltless. The God I serve cannot be put to shame because He did not fail Abraham, He did not fail Hannah, He did not fail Job and He can never fail me. I am on my knees.”
He also pointed out that his persecution in Austria has a negative impact on Nigeria’s image, which is part of what he wants to protect.
“As they are dragging me down, they are equally dragging the name of Nigeria and Nigerian pastors down. I honestly did not do such thing and I am really innocent but need your help and support to be free.”