Police brutality!: I was bundled into car boot, asked to pay N1m or face robbery charge –Victim

Human rights violations by security agencies have become common place in recent times in Nigeria, with shocking accounts by victims. According to this report by JULIANA FRANCIS, some of the victims recount how they were arbitrarily arrested, tortured and unlawfully detained…


Despite wiping her teary eyes many times, the tears continued to flow, making the efforts futile as Mrs Ann Opara tried to be strong while narrating her ordeal. Opara, a 36-year-old housewife resident at the Igando area of Lagos State, is one of several people the Network on Police Reforms in Nigeria (NOPRIN) and the South-West zone of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) are working with to unravel the extent of human rights violations visited upon Nigerians. The organisations are synergising on this with the Observatory on Monitoring of Human Rights Observance by Security and Justice Institutions in Nigeria.

Opara once told the story of how detectives attached to the Inspector- General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team allegedly brutalised and detained her over offences allegedly committed by her husband, Engineer Linus. She said: “My experience in the custody of IRT men was horrible. My blood pressure became too high and I bled for three weeks.
I was ordered to write that my husband was a kidnapper. They kept me in their custody for two months. I was there between July 14 and 20. A policeman hit me on the head with the heel of a shoe and blood started gushing out. Their leader, identified only as Philip, used his belt to flog me repeatedly.”
As she narrated her pathetic story, tears furiously rolled down her cheeks. At a point, she suddenly stopped, perhaps needing to compose herself, and only continued after a long while. According to her, the ordeal with IRT detectives started on July 14, 2017, when she got a call from an unknown number that she had a DHL parcel to collect. Thinking it was a prank call, she forgot all about it.
But a few days later, the caller persisted, asking for the nearest bus stop to her home. Pretending he wanted to drop the said parcel, she fell for the trick, disclosed the name of the bus stop and went ahead to meet the caller. Opara recounted: “My husband took me to the bus stop in his car. But he didn’t alight from it with me. When I got to the bus stop, I saw three men; they suddenly surrounded me.

They ordered me to enter their car, I said no. I didn’t know them. They said they wanted to take me to Igando Police Station. Yet, they did not take me there, eventually. “Even though they claimed to be policemen, I still refused because they failed to show me their identity cards. Right there, they started hitting and punching me.
They punched my right eye and I went blind momentarily. I couldn’t open my right eye for some days until I bought medicine while in the police cell to use.“When we got to Lagos State Police Command headquarters, Ikeja, one of the policemen, named Christian, ordered me to write a statement.
He asked me the type of work my husband does, and I said he is an engineer but he forced me to write that my husband is a kidnapper. The leader of the team, Philip, told them to put me in a cell where I would suffer. With my baby just a year old and sick at the time, I begged them to release me because of that but they refused.

“While in detention, another member of the team, identified simply as Idowu, was chatting with my husband. He pretended that he was a member of a kidnapping gang. They asked my husband to bring N10 million for ransom and he responded that he didn’t have such money. He told them that he could only raise N200,000.” Thinking it was a case of kidnapping, Opara’s husband promptly reported the case to the Igando Police Station.
At the time of her arrest, Opara was nursing a baby she was delivered of prematurely but was still clamped into detention for well over two weeks. On July 20, she said Christian brought her out of her cell and led her to Philip’s office where Idowu, Philip and three other policemen started beating her, leading to an injury on her hand. She recalled: “One of them used a shoe heel to hit me on my forehead; blood started flowing, on my body and on the floor.
The officer that hit me with the shoe gave me a rag to tie against the injury so as to stop the blood flow. At a point, I started losing strength because I had not eaten. I was on the floor; I begged them for water but they refused. Later, the officer that broke my head threw a bottle of water at me but I couldn’t open it because I was already feeling dizzy.

Our cell Marshall, Ijeoma, was in that office on that day. She assisted me to open the bottle of water and gave me some to drink. From their office, Christian and Idowu hand-cuffed me and took me to my house. When we got to my street, they parked at the end of the street. They said l should call my younger brother and sister to come and I did.
When they came to where we were, the policemen lied that I was arrested because my husband committed a crime with my phone number. They told them that I would rot in jail and my children would grow up on the streets of Lagos and would never see me again. They told my brother and sister to assist them in arresting my husband.
My sister gave me some clothes while my brother gave me N4,000. Idowu, however, collected N2,000 from the money, saying it was for fuel.” Finally, on July 22, a Friday, Opara’s husband was arrested. In a raid on their home, policemen allegedly took two black handbags, one rechargeable lamp, one lamp bulb, two phone chargers and a Camry ‘drop light’ car. “Christian and Idowu told my people to bring N100,000 before they would release me but my people couldn’t afford such an amount. They said they could afford N20,000. On July 24th, being Sunday, my people brought the N20,000 and gave to Christian for my bail,” added Mrs Opara.
After they switched her place with her husband’s, she went to the station to find out his offence from him. “My husband told me that he sold some health products to Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, otherwise known as Evans. The products were worth N120,000. After paying for the product, Evans tipped him N50,000. When I and my elder sister went to the station to see my husband, Christian said we should pay for the recharged card he bought before he would bring out my husband from the cell. I paid N1,000 but he said that we should refund the N170,000 Evans gave my husband so his hands would be off the case.”

Opara noted that on August 7th, she gave Christian N100,000, adding that Idowu and Philip were not around when she gave him the money. She said: “On August 11, I gave Christian N5,000. He said that the money was meant to help my husband. On August 12, Christian called me on phone and told me that my husband lied to them because they had gone to Abuja with his picture to ask Evans how he knew him. He said that Evans told them that he told my husband to monitor somebody for him and that he gave my husband N700,000. He said my husband got another N300,000 for the health products, adding that my husband got N1million from Evans and we have to return the money.
He said that we have to return the N1million. I told Christian that I wanted to sell our fridge and air conditioner, in order to raise the money. My husband’s friend also tried to use his car to get money from lenders. My husband asked me to sell anything I could in order to get him out of detention.
“On July 26th, I called Christian that I wanted to see my husband, he said I couldn’t unless I had the money with me. On 27th, I went to the station to give my husband money for feeding but Christian told me that they went to see Evans with my husband and Evans said he gave my husband money again.

A day after, Christian called and said that he wanted to withdraw from my husband’s case since we seemed unwilling to bring money. He called my brother, Nonso, and told him we were not ready to secure my husband’s release. My husband is asthmatic and had undergone hernia operation not long before his arrest.
“Nonso told him we didn’t have such money and that the life of my husband was in God’s hands. On September 5th, which was my last day at the station, I begged Christian to allow my husband to call some of his friends that could raise some money for him to give them. He agreed and my husband made the calls; but those he called didn’t respond.”
The IRT, regarded as one of the most respected and hardworking sections of the Nigerian Police, is headed by an Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mr Abba Kyari. Since the creation of the section under the leadership of Kyari, the unit had cracked several mind-boggling cases and arrested large scale criminals. However, recently, the unit was replicated in different states, with team leaders heading such units in each state.

The overall lead er remains Kyari, whose office is in Abuja. But since these units can’t be monitored personally by him, many people have claimed that atrocious acts are being perpetrated by the policemen, especially those in Lagos. Kyari has only been able to keep abreast of activities at the units across the country through information handed to him by his lieutenants. Reacting to the allegations, Kyari said that the woman was lying. “She’s the wife of Linus, who is an informant to Evans. Her husband is one of Evan’s gang members, who had brought many jobs for Evans. Nobody tortured her.
She’s lying. I know how she was arrested. How we staged the husband, that she was kidnapped before eventually arresting her. The new thing these days is to brand the police that they had collected money, rape, torture among other allegations. That’s the new tactics among suspects. Let an independent body investigate her allegations, please. Independent bodies like the Police X-Squad or Provost Department. If the men are found wanting, they should be dealt with and if the woman lied against policemen, she should be charged to court for giving false information “These men, who she made allegations against, had seen and avoided big money from Evans, let alone this chicken change like N20, 000 and N70, 000. She’s lying. She’s fabricating things to blackmail people who arrested her husband. The husband will be in court with Evans during the next court sitting.
How can somebody, who operated with Evans, be released?” he asked rhetorically. Human right groups, however, insisted that they didn’t care whether Linus is a gang member of Evans or not; what they are only after is the fact that Mrs Opara was arrested in his place, tortured and detained for more than the days approved by law. They are also concerned about the human rights violations of Linus who was detained for over three months in a police detention facility. Mrs. Opara is definitely not the only one making a case out of being mistreated by policemen. Obimdi Ocho also a petition filed by his lawyer, Dan Okonkwo. Ocho specifically complained about Supol Musibau Salawu of Zonal Intervention Squad (ZIS), Ikorodu, Lagos State, under Zone 2 Police Command in Onikan. Oowner of Formula 2 Hotel &Suites located at 1&2 Oluwa Memorial, Olodi Apapa, Lagos, Ocho accused the squad of alleged misconduct, extortion among other allegations.
He urged the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, to probe the incidents. According to Okonkwo, Ocho briefed him that on November 24, 2017, some policemen barged into his hotel complex in commando fashion and demanded to know if it was true security guards attached to his hotel were usually armed with rifles.

However, Ocho reportedly told them that the rifles in possession of his security guards had valid licences, which he immediately presented to the policemen. “Our client was informed by the policemen that a Pump Action rifle does not have licence, but our client told us that when he bought the rifle, he took it to Ikeja Police Command where he was issued a licence in 2015. They further questioned our client on why his guards were armed, he told them that cult members used to disturb customers and members of the public in the community, depriving them of their valuables.
“Our client briefed us that he had had cult boys coming into the hotel, and these boys sometimes used to fight the security men and often injured them. The case was reported at Trinity Police Station. They were arrested and handed over to Federal Special Anti- Robbery, where they were thereafter charged to court.” Okonkwo explained that in spite of Ocho’s response to all ZIS operatives’ questions, they still went ahead to arrest one of the guards identified as Cyril Nwachukwu.
“They whisked him away in their vehicle and didn’t drop phone number or their office contact address. Ocho ran to Trinity Police Station to inform them of the situation. It was there that he was told that the men came from Zonal Intervention Squad, Ladegboye, Ikorodu. Ocho later got the phone number of one of the policemen, identified as Supol Musibau Salawu. Okonkwo said: “When Musibau Salawu was called, he picked offence and ordered his men to come down to the hotel and arrest our client. These policemen handcuffed our client, with his hands behind and put him into the boot of their car.

They took him to their office at Ikorodu, where he was manhandled just because of the calls he made,” Okonkwo said. The lawyer said that when Ocho got to the ZIS office, he was shocked that the policemen placed a gun in his hand and took his photographs. Okonkwo added further: “These policemen came to his hotel, handcuffed and bundled him into the boot of their waiting car. At their Ikorodu office, they handed him a gun and took his photographs. They threatened that if he didn’t give them N1 million, they would send his pictures to media houses, especially online publishers, alleging that he was arrested during a robbery operation.
“The sum of N400,000 was collected from our client before he was released around 12.30am. On December 4, 2017, one of the team members went to our client and collected the sum of N60,000.” The lawyer explained that the policemen told Ocho that because of some phone calls he made after policemen stormed his hotel.
The IGP, the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), in charge of Zone 2, Mr. Ibrahim Adamu and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Edgal Imohimi, are all now aware of the case. The detectives claimed the money collected from Ocho would be used to settle some senior police officers and Okonkwo has urged the IGP to check the inordinate ambition of Supol Salawu and his men and restrain them from further harassing Ocho. When Zone 2 spokesperson, Dolapo Badmus, was contacted on the issue, she promised to investigate the matter and get back to our correspondent.

But since Thursday, she neither picked further calls nor responded to text messages sent her by our correspondent. When our correspondent called Salawu about the allegations, he said: “It’s not true. But I can’t talk right now. I will call you back.” A senior police officer, however, disclosed that the policemen were already being quizzed on the allegations. Like Opara and Ocho, Sylvester Ihejirika, a 27-year-old man, says he is also a victim of human right abuse. According to him, it all happened February this year after the construction company which employed him in Port Harcourt, laid off some of them. He got N500,000 in March as his benefit and thought of what he could do with the money.
“I met a friend, Temple, where I went to watch football. While chatting, I told him that I would like to go into transportation business. He introduced me to Alhaji Moruf Mustapha. He is a car dealer and has a car mart at Waterlines Junction, Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Alhaji brought a Sienna car, 1999 model and I liked it; we agreed on N500, 000.
The car had mechanical faults, including a cracked windscreen. I had a sick mother, whose hospital bills I was also paying at that period. I paid him N400,000 to Mustapha and promised to pay the balance later. I also needed to fix the car,” Ihejirika said. He said when Mustapha put pressure on him to pay his balance, he paid N90,000 and was to balance him N10,000. Ihejirika said: “The Alhaji started calling and threatening me. I decided to sell the car. In June, my company called me back. It was during that period that Alhaji called, saying that he had a Camry for sale. I decided to sell the Sienna car, added money and bought the Camry car. I felt Sienna was bad.
I didn’t know there was no Camry car. He came with policemen. I spent N250, 000 to fix the Sienna car. On that fateful day, I had N27, 000 in my pocket and my ATM card. “When the policemen walked up to me, I thought they were kidnappers. One instructed them: “hold him”. I struggled with them and then another appeared in police uniform.

They handcuffed and put shackles on my legs.” Attempts by Ihejirika to alert his brother, who is a naval officer, were rebuffed as they allegedly demanded the PIN of his ATM but he refused to disclose it. He said they dragged him all the way from Port Harcourt to Lagos where he was told that the Sienna car was a stolen car that belonged to a lady. While this was happening, Ihejirika said Mustapha who sold the car to him, was with the policemen. “They attacked and hit me with the butt of their guns. Alhaji took them to other places, where about eight people were arrested for allegedly buying stolen cars from the him. They also arrested my brother and later released him after collecting N30,000 from him.
They threatened to shoot me if I tried to question them. They wore T-shirts with inscription, ‘FSARS, Lagos State Command’ but they took us to a station in Ogun State. “They told the detainees that we were militants. We were beaten mercilessly. Later, I noticed that some inmates looked sick, injured and had fluids coming out from their ears,” Ihejirika said, adding: “We spent two weeks in cell. When I asked for the lady that owned the Sienna car, they said it was not my business.
They took my wristwatch, gold necklace and belt. While in detention, I saw them driving the Sienna car around, using it to arrest other people. My IPO is called Scorpion and he told me that his commander needed N1million. My people and I said we didn’t have such an amount. We later paid N50,000 into his account. The policemen later again asked for N500,000 for bail but my brother paid N120,000 and then I was released.

They are still with the car. None of the eight of us was charged to court. The car dealer, Alhaji, is working with the police. They used to call him out from cell to feed and interact with him,” he said. As far as Chime Adioha, a photojournalist who works with Spaces for Change, a non-governmental organisation, is concerned, one of the areas where citizens’ rights are abused most is during demolition of houses. He recalled that on June 2, 2017, using the lens of his camera, he was able to capture the agony of people losing their homes without due notice from the Lagos State Task Force. He said: “It was forced eviction at Badia East. The occupants were beaten as they attempted to salvage some of their property.
I was taking their shots when policemen came and walked me into their Black Maria. They seized my camera. I saw six community members brutalised and bleeding. A woman, called Biliki, was beaten and her clothes torn. They took every one of us to their office at Bolade, Oshodi. They asked every one of us to sit on wet floor and continued beating the community members. I guessed what saved me was presentation of my identity card and their knowledge of where I work. Six policemen repeatedly kicked the community members with their boots.
I was instructed to delete the documentary of the demolition and I did.” As chilling as the accounts are, not only policemen get involved in human rights violations; almost all uniform personnel in Nigeria are guilty of these atrocities as they often feel they can get away with their crimes.

A commercial cyclist, Muhammed Idachaba, was in Sabon Gari area of Idah when a Naval officer, Lt. Col Bassey, Assistant Commandant of Idah Naval Post, allegedly attempted to shove him off the road. The road was bad so Idachaba felt the naval officer was trying to manoeuvre through the potholes. However, a little bit ahead, he realised that the same officer had parked his car and as he rode past, he pursued and crossed his motorbike, forcing him to halt.
Coming out of his SUV, he ordered Idachaba to park his motorcycle, then ordered him to kneel and he obeyed. Bassey then ordered Idachaba to start doing frog-jump, and as he went about this in pain, the naval officer was said to have asked him if he remembered what he told him during the last state assembly re-run election at Ogegele. He allegedly reminded him that he promised that he was going to waste him any moment, he sees him. At this point, he drew his pistol and started to shoot Idachaba. After shooting him several times, the helpless man fell and taking him for dead, Bassey allegedly entered his SUV and drove off, heading to a motor park where he picked a girl in his car. Unknown to him, a plain cloth police officer was by the corner, observing the incident and trailed him.
The cyclist, who was rushed to Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja, luckily survived to tell the story of his abuse in the hands of the naval officer. NOPRIN and the National Human Rights Commission, with the support of the Observatory on Monitoring of Human Rights Observance by Security and Justice Institutions in Nigeria, held a public hearing on police abuses in Nigeria, recently to discuss the issues. Those in attendance were National Coordinator of NOPRIN, Okechukwu Nwanguma; Southwest Coordinator of the National Human Rights Commission, Lucas Koyejo; the Lead, Security and Justice at PRAWA, Mrs. Ogechi Ogu and Collins Okeke, Lawyer at HURILAWS as members.
In 2014, civil society and the Nigeria Police collaborated to develop a new police-training curriculum to replace the outdated colonial police training curriculum. The old curriculum was devoid of any human rights content and the new curriculum set out to fill the gaps and to reform and upgrade it to international standards for law enforcement education.

The Nigeria Police Force formally adopted the new training curriculum and the manual for use in police training institutions and for all levels of police training and retraining, with the Inspector General of Police writing its foreward to this curriculum. Although the new police training curriculum is exhaustive, encapsulating all the human rights principles governing democratic policing and law enforcement by the Nigeria Police, men and officers are still not in tune with the purpose and intent of the curriculum as human rights abuses by members of the Nigeria police continue to be on the rise.
According to the rights group, beating, torture, threat to life, extortion, conversion of property, resulted in violation of the rights to personal liberty, dignity of human person, fair hearing and right to property. Harassment and intimidation resulting in violation of the right to dignity of human person, beating/unlawful detention of complainant, extortion of complainant, conversion of property of complainant, continued unlawful detention of complainant’s husband without charge resulting in violation of rights to personal liberty, dignity of human person, fair hearing and right to property, which occur on daily basis, have no place in modern policing. The group recommended that NHRC should assist complainants identify perpetrators among others including making DPOs responsible for violations in their police stations.