“Our ordeals in police custody”

AYOMIDE OWONIBI-ODEKANYIN and OLALEKAN OLABULO bring to the fore the alleged travails of suspects while in police cells awaiting trial.

Every city has its own landmarks. The commercial capital of the most populous black nation on earth, Lagos, is not an exception. Even though the metropolis boasts of many important monuments spread across its mainland and island, the commercial yellow bus (widely known as ‘danfo’) has come to form part of the city’s very nature, colour and character. But that may not be the case anymore. Lagos roads won’t be “yellow” again soon, with the surprise declaration, on Monday, by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, that there are plans to rid the city of its famous yellow buses, consigning them to the rubbles of history.

“It would not be like Lagos, anymore,” Chudi Obum, a student at the Lagos State University, Ojo, lamented.

Playing to the gallery?

The executive declaration by the governor, according to the Saturday Tribune findings, won’t go unchallenged, though the coming ‘danfo’ war may not be the conventional open war. Insider information revealed what could be termed as politics and power-play in the announcement. Sources accused the governor of probably playing to the gallery to satisfy certain interests, by engaging in premature announcement of what was supposed to be an on-going plan to arrive at a comprehensive transportation policy, to be implemented in phases for many years to come. It was also gathered that the announcement by the governor had deepened the confusion in the sector, concerning the engagement of the yellow buses in the state transportation system, considering that they are the most popular, easily accessible, most available and cheapest mode of transportation in the city.

Government sources however debunked the notion of the announcement coming out too early, with a senior executive disclosing that all what the governor did was to put Lagosians and other stakeholders on early notice.

Taiwo Adepetu was arraigned before an Ikeja High Court for armed robbery, where he was accused by the police of allegedly snatching a woman’s handbag, while brandishing a toy gun. He, however, vehemently denied the crime, claiming during trial that he was coerced and forced to sign some statements purportedly written by the investigating police officer (IPO) handling the case. Adepetu claimed that he was tortured and beaten mercilessly and made to sign the statement under duress.

However, when the IPO entered the witness box to give his own side of the story, he said, as a police officer, the last thing he would resort to was to torture a suspect. He told the court that he had undertaken several trainings on suspect’s rights and privileges.

Whether Adepetu or the IPO lied in their respective testimonies before the court is a matter that would be determined by a competent judge. But the fact still remains that the issue of torture, which sometimes culminates in extra-judicial killings, cannot be overruled in Nigeria’s criminal system.

Human rights activist’s perspective

Human rights activist and President, Women Arise Initiative, Dr Joe Okei-Odumakin who spoke exclusively with the Saturday Tribune, said that reports and complaints from ex-convicts who were allegedly illegally detained or tortured in police cells calls for urgent action from those in authority.

“On daily basis, innocent Nigerians are illegally detained, tortured and extorted because they have nobody to stand for them, so they come to us to get justice. With the present human rights activists and police relationship, we try to get justice for them but in most cases, no compensation for them.

“The constitution says that the police have no right to detain anybody for more than 24 hours, but we see cases of innocent people who are detained for months without be arraigned in court. The only solution to this kind of illegal treatment meted on innocent Nigerians is for the higher authority to enforce the law on the 24 hours detention law as stipulated in our constitution.

“Reports from other human rights activists, Amnesty International, media reports and victims’ experience related to us shows that most police cells are over-crowded and lack the proper structure to keep human beings. The environments are not hygienic; the cells are not properly lighted which normally leads to eye sight problems after the detainee is released.

“When the detainees are sick, they (the police) prevent them from proper medical attention, telling them that they are pretending which, in most cases, leads to fatal health complications. The cells lack enough air to keep the inmates healthy, which normally leads to fainting.

The story of torturing in police cells is lack of professionalism. Police should do proper investigation as this will help to prevent innocent person from been illegally detained”, she said.

An ex-detainee’s story

The story of an ex-detainee, simply identified as Jonathan, is another horrible experience of suspects in the hands of the police. Jonathan claimed to have been detained some years ago at a police cell in Ikeja. The experience, according to him, turned his life around and he prayed never in his life to go near a police cell again. He told Saturday Tribune that he and his other colleagues were arrested by the police on the instruction of their former boss for allegedly stealing his money.

“Like play, like play, I spent six months in police cell  for an offence I never committed. I was released after six months. My duty in the cell was to be a house boy to hardened criminals. I saw things that always hunt me anytime I reflect back. The judicary system in Nigeria is weak. Those who are nobody, or don’t have money or don’t have people in place of authority are on daily basis detained without arraignment and, if you are not lucky, you can be exchanged for a criminal or even sent to prison”, Jonathan said.

Awaiting trial mess.

The record in most Lagos prisons shows that thousands of inmates are presently in prison without being charged to court, only to be released after many years behind the bars, and without any compensation. Amnesty International (AI) published a report on September 21, 2016 in which it identified the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a special unit set up to combat violent crimes, as a notorious human rights abuser.

What we are doing-Human rights group.

Speaking with Saturday Tribune, a human rights lawyer and founder of Advocate for Change and Equality, Mr Olusegun Adefolahan, said he had been forced to file human rights abuse cases against some policemen in the past.

“Just as they say in pidgin parlance, their own is too much.” Adefolahan lamented. He alleged that some policemen, for pecuniary reasons, would arrest an innocent person, make him go through torture as a way of satisfying their pay masters.

“There was this land case I had to wade into. The thugs hired policemen who came to harass people living on the disputed land. They came in their police vehicle and started ordering people around while tendering fake court papers.

“The poor people, fearing for their lives, many of them scampered for safety as they had been warned that if they (the police) come back, the story would change. They arrested one of the dwellers and, on the request of the other party, he was tortured severely. He was, however, bailed after a week in detention by his concerned relatives”, he said.

Police defence.

A policeman attached to a police station in Ajeromi, Ajegunle in Lagos, who pleaded anonymity, said most criminals were under oath not to reveal anything about the identities of their members or previous operations embarked upon.

“So how do you get them to cooperate or even elicit any meaningful information from them?”, he queried, adding, “most criminals are members of cult groups. Before joining, they are made to go through some rituals during which their leader administers on them oath of secrecy.

“After this ritual exercise, they see their leader as strong and invisible and could reach anybody who betrays them, even while in police custody. When one or more persons from this gang are arrested, they prefer to die with any information than to be tortured by their gang members”, he added.

A senior police officer in Lagos who also pleaded anonymity, while speaking on why police torture suspects, said, “torture is necessary but not compulsory”. He also blamed the public for such treatment.

“It is difficult but possible not to torture suspects. It is not every time that the police torture as people think. It is only the police in Nigeria that are not trained to torture. When you go to other places, torture is part of their training. No police training institution in Nigeria trains policemen on the culture.

“People outside also contribute to the torture in most cases. When they are the complainant and the suspect is not their family, they encourage us to torture them. But when the suspect is their family, they accuse the police of torture. They want us to torture people to confess, but they label us as criminals when we torture their relatives.

“It is all about doing diligent investigations. You don’t have to torture when you do your investigations right. But there are still cases when you need to frighten the suspects to cooperate with you”, he said.

Why suspects die-PPRO

The Lagos police spokesperson, Dolapo Badmus, told Saturday Tribune that “Torture is non-existent in Lagos State command, except you want to give a specific example. The one that died in the cell was never tortured; he was exhausted from the incident. He complained of body aches and was rushed to the hospital”.