Victim demands compensation
For Mr. Suleiman Busari, a professional mechanic and commercial driver, his prison experience was a horrible one he would not forget in a hurry. He described the experience as hellish. This reporter recently met him at the Abule-Egba area of Lagos State, where he has a mechanic workshop. He was a picture of anger as he recalled how he landed in prison and spent three weeks. He said that he remembered feeling like a lamb in the midst of wolves in the prison.“I saw myself as a lamb, while those hardened inmates were like wolves! I won’t forget how I was brutally beaten because I refused to carry human faeces, which filled a pit in the prison compound. I was beaten by other prisoners. At a point, I thought I would die. The sleeping condition was terrible. In order to sleep, I folded my body to make myself as small as possible.
There was not enough space for sleeping,” said Busari.
Busari’s three weeks sojourn in Kirikiri Prison started after his encounter with a team of policemen, attached to the Alagolo Police Station, Ipaja, Lagos State. The team was led by a woman police and before Busari could catch his breath from the shock of being arrested and charged to court, he was already in prison.
According to him, the incident happened in November, 2013, at the Abule- Egba area of the metropolis, but it was like it happened yesterday. He explained that as a driver, he was going about his daily business, when, for reasons he could not fathom, the police, who were on patrol, flagged him down. He recalled: “I was driving home on that fateful day at about 8pm, along Baruwa, at Abule-Egba, when the police patrol team stopped me.
They asked me to park. I obeyed without hesitation. They now asked me to present my drivers’ license. They also asked to see my driving permit. I was shocked when they refused to allow me go after I had presented and gave them all the items they asked for. I became quite uneasy when they ordered me to follow and drive the bus to their station.”
Busari noted that a woman police, later identified as Mrs. Mary, was in charge of the team. “On getting to their station, I was asked to submit my bus documents, key, drivers’ license as well as my drivers’ permit. They asked me to go home. The following day, I came to the station to pick my documents, but I was told that the matter had been charged to court. My surprise was that up till then, they still refused to tell me my offence.” On getting to the court at Abule-Egba, Busari said he met an unknown lawyer, whose name was not revealed to him.
The lawyer demanded N7, 500.00 from him, to represent and get him bailed. Busari said he was not aware of his crime and the reason for being charged to court until he saw the charge sheet. He was found guilty and sentenced to prison for dangerous driving, driving without permit and a license. “I thought it was a bad joke until I saw myself in Kirikiri Prison,” said Busari.
“I paid the N7, 500.00 to the lawyer, but he disappeared. I didn’t even know him from Adam. He just came to me from nowhere. I didn’t even know how he knew I had a problem that required a lawyer.” He said that he was taken to Kirikiri with his heart pounding in fear. He had heard so many terrible things about the place. He also knew he would be in the company of hardened criminals. He said: “The first person I met in prison was a man who introduced himself as Alhaji. We greeted each other in the Islamic way.
I felt welcomed and my fears lessened. I thought we were Muslim brothers, but he later changed right before my eyes. I later got to know that he was the marshal in the prison. Alhaji asked me what brought me to prison; I narrated my story to him. He promised to help me, so that other inmates would not harm or molest me. The assistance however came with a condition. He said I should promise to give him N7, 5000 recharged cards. I promised him.
“It was even the Alhaji that gave me phone to call my wife for the recharge cards. My wife said she wouldn’t be able to come up with such an amount of recharge cards. I begged and told her that even if it was two, she should send. Immediately I mentioned two recharge cards, someone gave me a hot slap at the back of my head. I saw stars! It was one of the inmates who stood with Alhaji. They were angry that I was asking for two recharge cards after they demanded for five.” Busari’s wife later sent the two recharge cards and surprisingly, Alhaji accepted them.
But he was apparently not happy. He decided to punish Busari as was the usual form of indoctrination in prison. He was ordered to carry human faeces, but he refused, leading to rounds of serious beatings.
If he thought his situation would get better, he was sadly mistaken. If anything, his situation worsens, with Alhaji and other inmates seizing his money and food. “Whenever my wife brings food to the prison, they would take it. If my wife brings food with five pieces of meat, they would take four and give me one.
If she brings three wraps of amala, they would take two and give me one. My wife would give me N1000; they would collect N800 and give me N200. They made me to sleep on bare ground.
That was how I lived for two weeks.” While he was in prison, Busari became a praying mantis, more on his knees than on his legs. He asked God to save and take him away from the prison because he had committed no crime and did not deserve to be there.
Busari’s prayers were already being answered, but he did not know. His wife, friends and kinsmen were already running from pillar to post, raising money and searching for a lawyer to get him out of the ‘hell.’ When they finally got a lawyer, he began trying to trace Busari’s case file, but it appeared to have taken flight.
The lawyer decided to go to the Alagolo Police Station, to see if he could trace the case file. “My lawyer, Mr. Ajasa, later told me that he was shocked when he reached the station and the Divisional Police Officer(DPO), in charge of the station, told him that he was not aware of such a case, neither was he briefed.” Mr. Ajasa went to the woman police, Mrs. Mary, who led the team that arrested Busari.
But rather than explain what happened to the case file, Mrs. Mary started pleading for clemency. “She said that we should forgive her, that what happened that day was a case of transferred aggression against me. She said that some other drivers got her angry.”
With the help of his lawyer, Busari was finally released from Kirikiri Prison. After prison, Busari went to Mrs. Mary in an attempt to get back his vehicle documents. He said: “Mrs. Mary apologised profusely to me, but I was surprised when she said I should go to the police counter and give N2000 to the policemen at the counter, so that they would give me my documents. I told her I didn’t have a dime.
She said I should try and give anything. I gave them N1000 and they gave me only my bus key and refused to hand over my documents. I went to report to Mrs. Mary. They told me that they couldn’t find my documents anymore. I had to use N40,000 to and get a new plate number and documents for my bus.”
Busari said he had been punished unduly for an offence he did not commit, adding: “All my vehicle documents were complete and up to date on that fateful day they arrested me. I feel that the Nigeria Police Force should compensate me for all the sufferings and torture I went through in the prison. They were the cause of all my troubles.
They dragged me into hell!”
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