A Mass Communication student of the Lagos State Polytechnic,
Taiwo Rasaq, has lamented how policemen who are attached to the Owutu Police
Division tortured and detained him unlawfully.
Rasaq claimed that the only “crime” he committed was
demanding to know the reason for his arrest.
The victim, who was arrested during a raid in Agric area of
Ikorodu, said after all the beatings, he was made to pay N30,000 before the
policemen freed him.
According to Punch report,
Rasaq was about to disembark from
a tricycle when the policemen picked him up around 9.30pm on May 30.
He said the policemen arrested 30 others and whisked them
away to the station, adding that he was slapped several times when he requested
to know his offence.
He said, “On May 30, around 9.30pm, I was coming from Egbeda
in a tricycle. As I was about alighting at Ori-Okuta, in the Agric area, some
policemen from the Owutu division arrested me.
They arrested many people including those that went to buy
bread and garri for dinner.
“When we got to the station, we met over 30 boys who had
also been arrested like us.
I demanded to know why I was arrested, but they did not
answer. A few minutes after, they told me to remove my clothes and drop my
belongings, but I refused.
“I told them I would not undress until I knew why I was
arrested. I asked them to allow me make my statements and call my people. Three
of them walked up to me and slapped me several times.
“One of them said, ‘You think you know the law, you will
sleep in the cell tonight’.
“I kept telling them that I deserved to know my offence and
if they couldn’t tell me, then it’s a kidnap. One of them slapped me again,
while others manhandled me, so I kept quiet.”
Rasaq said the policemen allegedly collected between N5,000
and N10,000 from others, but he paid N30,000 for being ‘stubborn’ before he was
released.
“We were over 70 that they arrested. They didn’t interrogate
us or allow us to write any statement.
The next morning, the bargain started from N10,000 and they
threatened to move us to the Kirikiri Prisons. People begged and they agreed to
take N5,000.
“My people begged them as well, they collected N30,000 from
me for being stubborn.
Two other officers said they would not allow me go until I
paid them another N1,000 privately, which I did. Though I couldn’t take
pictures of the officers, I took their names and tags.
They are: Odetunde Taofeek of Force Number 366967 and
Iniobong Bassey of Force Number 023349,” he added.
Another victim, Yemi Ajayi, who resides in Igbo Olomu, said
he had attempted to explain to the policemen that a 15-year-old boy they
arrested was his son’s friend, when he was beaten up and arrested.
He said, “I was in front of my wife’s shop around 9pm when
the boy was shouting my name. I went to meet the police and told them who the
boy was, but they did not listen.
They hit me with the butt of their gun, fired tear gas
canisters and threw me inside their van.
The DPO was there too; he didn’t listen to me. It was my
people that came to pay for my bail the next day and I was taken to a hospital.
As I speak with you, I am still in pains.”
The Officer-in-Charge of the Nigeria Police Complaint
Response Unit, CSP Abayomi Shogunle, said the raid was to rid Ikorodu of cult
groups and violent attacks.
He said, “It is a week-long operation and it is in response
to recent cult-related attacks in Ikorodu town. Some of the apprehended
persons, found not to be linked to the ongoing investigation, have been
released after initial screening, while 120 persons of interest arrested at
different locations have been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation
Department, Yaba.”
– CSP Shogunle is my friend but I won’t agree with him on
this, no way. Why should policemen take money from innocent Nigerians for
“bail” in the guise of looking for cultists?
No comments:
Post a Comment