A 37-year old cab driver, Vincent Omosigho Erawuyi, has cried out for justice after he was tortured by a female police officer, named Beatrice Amowie, who inflicted injury on him for a traffic offence.
Erawuyi, who groaned in pain as he narrated his ordeal to journalists in Benin, on Wednesday, said that he was detained at the Etete Police Station by the said female Police Inspector, in spite of the injury inflicted on him.
According to Erawuyi, he had an encounter with Amowie, a Police Inspector attached to Etete Police station, Benin, at Limit Junction axis of Benin City, when he went to the police checking post at the junction to apologise to an officer he said he offended for not stopping when he was asked to stop.
He added that not knowing that the officer who had stopped him, had left the beat, he, unknowingly started apologising to the wrong office, who turned out to be Amowie.
He claimed that Amowie grabbed him and reportedly punched him, several times, adding that in a bid to escape, his right hand mistakenly hit the police officer on her chick which led to his arrest and detention.
“I was stopped by a police officer on the 9th of June at Limit Junction. The officer stopped me and was about to damage my side mirror so I zoomed off. But because it is my regular route, and knowing well that I had wronged the officer, I went there to beg but, honestly speaking, I never knew it was the wrong person I was apologising to. As I was apologising for my wrongdoing the previous day, she held me tight on my neck with my shirt and started punching me. And on my bid to escape, my hand mistakenly hits her on the chick and she arrested me and took me to Etete Police station,” Omosigho narrated, weeping.
According to him, he was detained in the cell for more than a week before he was charged to court, adding that during the period of his detention, the police denied his family access to him.
Omosigho, who said that he was eventually granted bail but could not meet the condition for the bail and had to return to the cell.
He noted that, on getting to the cell after few days, the Inspector handcuffed him, tortured him and hit him with the butt of her gun on his legs (below his knees) thereby inflicting serious injuries on his legs, particularly his left leg, which was already filled with poss as at when he spoke with newsmen in pain.
He noted that after the torture he was still detained in the cell for over two weeks with no medical treatment, adding that the Inspector vowed that he was going to die in the cell while they denied his family members to see him.
Also speaking to journalists, Omosigho’s wife, Stella, said “They did not allow any of us to see him in the cell so I had to pay N1,000 each time I went to the cell to visit him. They refused us to see him after they beat him and injured him.”
When contacted, Edo State Police Command spokesperson, SP Bello Kontongs, said he was aware of the incident, adding that he had received several calls from activists on the incident.
The Edo Police image maker added that the victim needed to be accompanied by those calling for justice on his behalf, to the Command headquarters or AIG Zone 5 so the matter could be treated.
“I have received several calls from journalists and activists on the matter but the advice I have been giving is that they should bring the victim to the command headquarters or zone 5 headquarters so they can properly lodge their complaint and we follow it up.
“The station concerned is just a Divisional Police Headquarters so it is not higher than the state command or zone 5. When we receive the complaint formally, we will handle it,” he said.
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VERDICT: MISLEADING!Cab driver cries for justice in Edo over police brutality
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