A 30-year-old mechanic, Oladele
Adebanjo, has accused the
policemen attached to the
Special Anti-Robbery Squad of
the Lagos State Police Command
of torturing and shooting him
while he was in detention.
Adebanjo said he spent seven
days in the SARS custody at the
police command headquarters
in Ikeja, over false allegations
that he stole a commercial bus.
He said, “In August 2011, I took
a Mazda bus model E2000 on a
hire purchase agreement of
N1.8m which was meant to be
paid in N30,000 monthly
instalments from a
businessman, Olatunji Adeyemi.
“Though there were slight
defaults in payment which arose
from mechanical faults and a
major accident sometimes in
February 2012, I carried
Adeyemi along and discharged
my obligations accordingly and
paid N910, 000 by September
14, 2012 before the bus was
stolen.”
He said the bus was stolen at
the residence of the driver he
employed to drive it in Ikorodu
area of the state and reported
the matter at the Sagamu Road
Police Division.
He added that Adeyemi got
furious about the incident and
reported at the Oworo Police
Division that he stole the bus so
as to evade the payment of the
outstanding money.
He said, “On October 22, after
about six weeks of unsuccessful
search for the bus, I and the
driver reported back to the
Oworo Police Division as I was
instructed to do but surprisingly
the IPO in charge of the matter
said my case had been
transferred to SARS.”
He said a policeman from SARS
came for them at the Oworo
station, got them handcuffed
and drove them to the
command headquarters in Ikeja
where they were received by
Taofeek Olokede at the SARS.
He said, “As soon as we got
there, Olokede asked for
Adebanjo and as soon as I
identified myself, he gave me a
dirty slap. He immediately
moved me to a room where he
stripped me leaving only my
pants on.
“He tied my hands and hung me
to a metal pipe fitted to a wall.
He also put stone into a
container and used a chain to
hang it on my neck. He beat me
intermittently in the process and
this lasted for about an hour
before he removed it.
“The driver and four other
persons arrested for another
alleged incident suffered similar
fate and two of them gave up
the ghost after intense torture in
the process. When I refused to
make an incriminating statement
that I stole the bus, he brought
out a pistol from his holster and
shot me at the leg.”
Adebanjo said the bullet pierced
through his leg, adding that
Olokede thereafter ordered his
men to move him to the cell.
Adebanjo, who recalled that he
was tortured between 9 and
10pm, said he lost so much
blood in the process.
He said on October 23, he was
taken to Shomolu General
Hospital where Olokede’s men
lied to the doctors that he was
an armed robber shot while
trying to escape. He said he was
given some first aid and moved
back to the cell.
Adebanjo said while in
detention, neither his parents
nor his lawyer was allowed to
see him.
He said, “A family friend who
happened to be a senior police
officer in Abuja who learnt about
my ordeal sent words to his
colleague in Lagos who
intervened and I was
subsequently released on
October 29. The O/C SARS and
the Commissioner of Police later
got wind of the development.
“Apart from the gunshot injury
which damaged my bones, my
shoulders got broken. I was
discharged at the hospital on
Monday. In fact they have
temporarily incapacitated me.”
His father, Allison, said he had
spent over N400,000 on
Adebanjo’s health, adding that
the policemen who treated his
son in such a brutal manner
needed to be brought to book.
“What the SARS policemen did
was jungle justice and all those
involved should not get away
with. If we had not sought help
from a senior police officer who
blew the lid open, maybe my
son would have been killed by
now,” he said.
When our correspondent
contacted Adeyemi on the
telephone on Tuesday, he
admitted reporting the case at
the the Oworo Police Division
and SARS.
“I wonder why they shot him
too because I only reported to
them that he stole my bus and
that he had initially been
defaulting in terms of payment
of the hire purchase
agreement,” he said.
The Lagos State Police Public
Relations Officer, Ngozi Braide,
in a text message to our
correspondent said she had not
been briefed on the incident.
However, she said the
command would not condone
such extrajudicial acts from its
officers and men.
“I am not aware of this matter
but I will get in touch with the
CP (Umar Manko) since you said
it has been reported to him.
But, I know that if our men had
engaged in any extra-judicial act
during their course of duty, the
command will never condone
it,” she said.
Culled from Punch
No comments:
Post a Comment