3-month old baby, mother held for 4 months

By Juliana Francis
Four months after she was arrested, a nursing mother is still in the horrible cells of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Ikeja, Lagos State.
The lady, Chigozie, was arrested at her home in Ajah area, after her husband was killed in a gun battle with policemen.
Chigozie’s husband was one of the kidnappers, who allegedly kidnapped the Ejigbo Local Council Development Area boss, Mr Kehinde Bamigbetan and a Federal High Court Judge.
After her husband, a half-caste, simply as identified as China, was killed, police had gone to her home and arrested her, her baby, who was then just three months old and China’s younger sister.
She was dragged and presented with almost seven corpses of the alleged kidnappers who the police killed at Agbara area of the state.
She identified the corpse of her husband and was detained with her baby.
Four months after, Chigozie and her baby are still being held at SARS. A source revealed that the woman had repeatedly told the police that she knew nothing about her late husband being a kidnapper, but the police still continued to detain her and her baby.
Chigoze explained to the police that she was in Ghana and was supposed to manage her husband’s hotel business, when the man suddenly called her to come down to Nigeria with the kids, that they would be  travelling out.
She was at their home,  at Ajah, waiting for him, when police came to arrest her. But police said she was lying.
The police had also arrested her father and four year old daughter, but later released both, but strangely refused to release Chigozie and her baby.
Sick and tired of being incarcerated and breastfeeding her baby inside the cell, Chigozie had taken to crying every day, begging police to charge her to court. She was also worried about her other children whom she had not seen.
Speaking on the issue, Deputy Police Spokesman, Ozoani Damasus, said that Chigozie was still being held because of ongoing investigations and because she allegedly confessed to having three pistols in her possession, which are in Ghana.
Damasus added: “The woman’s husband is the popular China, who masterminded the kidnap of the Ejigbo Local Council Development Area boss, Mr Kehinde Bamigbetan and a Federal High Court Judge. He was also responsible for many robberies which involved destruction of ATM. Right now, police have written to INTERPOL, so that they can go to Ghana and access her home and recovered the guns. We will charge her to court after that.”
While police are waiting for INTERPOL to acknowledge their letter, Chigozie, her baby and sister-in-law continue to languish in detention.
It was this same SARS cell that a Lagos based human right activist, Mr. Olatunde Oladipo Vincent condemned heartily.
His words: “Even if it’s raining, the cell is always hot like an oven. The authority says it cannot put fan in the cells, but there should at least be windows for ventilation. The cell is another world entirely. You don’t know if it is morning or afternoon or night. All they know is that they call them to come and pray and they pray,” he said. He also added that the police formation should try to provide the suspects with food as most of them are left to starve for days with no food or water. He stated that the suspects only get to eat when they are being visited by friends or relatives who bring food to them whenever they come to pay a visit.  He revealed that the ones who had no relatives to visit them were left at the mercy of other inmates who share the little food brought to them.
Still recounting his ordeal in one of the prisons, Vincent decried the non-provision of mattress and blankets for the suspects to sleep as most of them sleep on bare floor in the cells. His words: “There was never a time we were less than 80 in a cell. We slept on bare floor. It’s a terrible situation. They have a toilet where the 80 of you use. And you cannot take your bath except the prison marshal tells you to take your bath. It’s not every day you take your bath, except you pay the marshal.” Vincent said that the number of suspects in a cell is so much because the police put armed robbery suspects, murder, civil cases, among others, together in the same cell. The activist opines that suspects should as a matter of urgency, be kept in separate cells, depending on their crime. “The command office looks so beautiful, but you will never know there is a place there where innocent people, including hardened criminals are locked up together in the cell of about 18 by18.”