Exra-judicial killing: Bauchi police denies allegations by PIDI

Bauchi State Police Command has denied allegations that its personnel engaged in dehumanisation leading to the death of two suspected thieves while in police custody.

The Command PPRO, DSP Ahmed Wakili while speaking to a few journalists on Saturday said that there was no truth in the allegations by Prison Inmate Development Initiative (PIDI-Nigeria) that the suspects died in police custody due to torture, stressing that it was the duty of the police to preserve lives and prosecute suspects.

He explained that information available to the police was that the three suspects were mobbed when they broke into a farm and stole a number of chickens after beating and almost killing the security guard at the farm.

The PPRO then assured that the police will not relent in its resolve to protect the lives and properties of innocent residents just as he warned that the Command will not compromise the security of the state.

While corroborating what the police said, a community leader, Abdullahi Bẹni who is a retired police officer, said that the Doya area of Bauchi metropolis has been invaded by boys who have nothing doing apart from stealing domestic animals and other valuables.

He explained that the said boys had gone to operate somewhere and they were caught by the residents who beat them to a pulp saying that, “The police only went to rescue them from the mob action. I believe that two of them died as a result of the injuries they got from the beating.”

Another resident of the area who is the chairman of the local security committee popularly called ‘Yan Komiti’, Bala Adamu Jumba narrated that the boys had become a terror group in the area, just as he too absolved the police of any complicity in the death of the boys.

These revelations were made when Nigerian Tribune on the receipt of the petition by PIDI Nigeria investigated to ascertain the veracity of the allegations by the NGO.

The human rights group, Prison Inmate Development Initiative (PIDI-Nigeria) had accused some officers and men of a police division in the Bauchi State Police State Command of allegedly torturing two suspected chicken thieves to death while a third suspect was also allegedly tortured is critically ill and is receiving treatment in hospital while in custody.

PIDI made a petition dated July 23, 2020, and signed by Mbami Sabka Iliya, submitted to the Commissioner of Police in the state on the same date.

PIDI alleged that the suspects stole 24 chickens from a retired police officer who lodged a complaint at the division as made available to journalists on Friday.

The petition which was copied to the Human Rights Defender, and copied to the National Rights Commission and the Human Rights Agenda Network, requested the Commissioner of Police to charge the DPO and those involved in the alleged torture, extortion and extrajudicial killing of the suspects.

Sabka Iliya stated that their findings revealed that the suspects, Ibrahim Kapala, Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulwahab Bello, were alleged to have broken into the house of a retired police officer and allegedly stole 24 chickens. He added that the suspects were arrested following a complaint against them to the police by the retired officer, who later came back and reported that he had found 13 of his chickens.

He stated further that: “The Monitoring and Evaluation unit of PIDI-Nigeria did a thorough investigation of the case. From our findings, it was revealed that the three suspects namely; Ibrahim Kapala, Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulwahab Bello were alleged to have committed theft of chickens from a retired Police Officer who went and lodged a complaint against them.

“They were arrested on the suspicion that they committed theft by carting away 24 chickens. However, the complainant later came back and reported that he has found 13 out of his chickens. Also, from our findings, it shows that the victims were alleged to have confessed carting away only five chickens and they also took the police to the buyer which led to his arrest.

“The available information made known to us shows that the said buyer had already slaughtered one out of the five chickens while the remaining four were recovered.”

The human rights activist stated also that the buyer was ordered to pay for the five chickens again at the rate of N2,000 which he did and also paid for his bail, adding that their findings also revealed that the policemen ordered the suspects to pay for the remaining six untraced chickens.

He pointed out that the suspects paid a total sum of N22,000 for the chickens and N8,000 as bail condition.

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