The last may not have been heard of the alleged arrest, victimization and subsequent torture of Dare Ogunneko, 24, while in police cell at Ago Iwoye, a suburb of Ogun State.
While the victim said he was tortured by some policemen attached to the station because he could not afford N5,000 demanded from him as bail money, the detectives who conducted the investigation alleged that the victim is an armed robbery suspect who has been on their wanted list.
Dare, who is now in prison custody, told Weekly Trust from his cell that he was arrested along with four of his friends, by some members of a vigilante group in the area.
He said they were on their way home from a party when they were accosted by the group.
He also said they were later handed over to the policemen who were on patrol of the area. While at the Ago Iwoye Police Station, he added, they were asked to pay N5,000 each as bail money before they would be allowed to go.
“The following day the four others were able to raise their own money individually and were allowed to go,” he said.
Dare said after spending three weeks in police custody, he was brought out of the cell along with some other suspects by the police, alleging that they were all members of an armed robbery gang that had been terrorizing residents of the area.
“I was shocked beyond imagination that what started like child’s play has culminated into allegations of robbery.
I have never seen those they paraded me along with as robbers before,” he added.
He said while in police custody, he was hung from the ceiling several times to admit that he is an armed robber, adding that at the end of some of the tortures, fire was used on his body.
“Most of the time when I was taken to the torture chamber, I would pass out only for me to regain consciousness inside the cell several hours after the torture had ended,” Dare added.
He told Weekly Trust that he was terribly tortured most of the time, leaving him with serious lacerations while interrogating him on an allegation of robbery.
Officials of the prison, who pleaded for anonymity, said they had contributed money several times to take the victim to the hospital. One of the officials said nobody thought that Dare could survive the injuries he sustained.
“Most prison officials hardly go to Dare’s cell when he first arrived because of the offensive odour around him,” he added.
A case of abuse of power against the police has been filed at the Headquarters of Zone 2, Lagos. Also piqued by the photographs, a Lagos lawyer, Chief A. G. Giwa, whose Stephen and Solomon Foundation in collaboration with the Knights of St. Mulumba Lekki-Sub Council, led by Sir. Patrick Ikemefuna, has petitioned the Inspector-General of Police over the incident.
The organisation said the torture is a violation of provisions of the 1999 Nigerian Constitutions, Section 34 and 36 which postulated that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty and every person is entitled to dignity of human person.
The organisation says: “Nigeria Police actions and inactions when dealing with suspects in their custody had left sour taste in the mouth and further made a mockery of our claim of dispensing justice as required by the United Nations Charter that Nigeria is signatory to.”
In a statement in Lagos, the organisation frowned at the case of 25-year-old Dare, stating that it has brought to the fore the “dehumanizing treatments meted out to suspects, the moment they are apprehended by the men of the Nigerian Police Force.
The statement said there were many of such cases that were never heard of, noting that that of Dare became public knowledge because of the legal assistance offered him by the officials of Stephen and Solomon Foundation and the Knights of St Mulumba Lekki-Sub Council.
The two bodies vowed to make sure Dare’s fundamental human rights are upheld and be allowed to receive medical attention in a well-equipped government hospital against the treatment he is currently receiving from the ill-equipped Prisons medical personnel. The foundation further pledged free legal services to Dare by instituting a civil claim for N500,000,000 being damages for the infringement of his fundamental human rights.
But the police in Ogun State still maintain that Dare is an armed robbery suspect who was arrested and that the matter is in court.
