…accuses her of desiring to be promiscuous
Juliana Francis
Members of the Advocates for Children and Vulnerable Persons Network (ACVPN) are seething following the repeated dehumanising treatment meted out to a mother of four by a woman Investigating Police Officer (IPO), identified as Funmi, attached to Elere Police Station, Agege, Lagos State.
The victim, who introduced herself as Kehinde, was said to have run to ACVPN because she feared for her life and also worried that would not get justice at the Elere Police Station following the shabby manner IPO Funmi had been treating her.
Narrating her ordeal to ACVPN Programmes Officer, Blessing Aderemi, Kehinde said that her husband for years had been subjecting her to intense domestic violence.
When she was tired of it, especially since family members ordered her to stop running to them for help, she ran to Elere Police Station, believing that the Police intervention would check her husband’s excesses and make him stop battering her, but the reverse was the case.
The Police, rather than treat the issue of protracted domestic violence, appeared to start taking sides with the victim’s husband, leading to her being arrested, handcuffed and detained.
She explained that the IPO, Funmi arrested, handcuffed, and detained her for daring to leave her matrimonial home after she had ‘settled’ the matter and had on previous occasions instructed her to return home to her husband.
The victim narrated: “My husband, Remilekun used to beat me always, he would want to strangle me and he had repeatedly threatened to kill me, and even while beating me, he would be biting me. I was just so tired of it!
“We got married in 2014. I have four children two girls and two boys, an eight-year-old, two years old (twins) and a four-year-old. The domestic violence started two years after we got married.
“Remilekun’s family members told me they would no longer get involved in our issues because there was a day my husband was beating me; I ran to their apartment as we were living in their family house.
“Remilekun still came to beat me up there and destroyed their property. Since then, they told me not to run to them again for safety. I first reported the domestic violence to Area G Police, Ogba, but my mother came and insisted that the Police should forget about the matter.
“She refused to allow the Police to charge the matter to court or even allow my husband to write a letter of undertaken to desist from beating me.
“My mother said because Remilekun is my husband. On the 16th of August 2023, I went to buy noodles at my friend’s shop, my husband came there to beat me.
“He destroyed my friend’s goods and threatened and warned her never to open her shop for me again.
“My friend reported at Elere Police Division, he was picked up and I was made to write an undertaken by IPO Funmi that I wouldn’t associate with my friend again.
“I made it clear to them that I didn’t want the marriage again because the violence was too much.
“IPO Funmi insisted that I should go back home because ‘my eyes are outside.’ While my husband was leaving for work on Monday, 24th of August 2023, he threatened that he didn’t want to see me again.
“He asked me to leave the house, that he would be sending the children school fees and welfare, that I should just go before he kills me.
“On the 26th of August 2023, I left with my children to the church. I left the church after five days. I went to Mama, a friend’s mother’s place for safety. He arrested my friend with officers from Elere Police Division Agege, he said that my friend would know my whereabouts.
“My friend called and pleaded that I should come back to avoid problems. On Sunday, the 9th of September, I went to the police station.
“I was arrested, detained and thrown into the cell till Monday. The IPO Funmi, told me I had no right to leave home after she had settled our previous matter. I told her that the violence was too much for me, but she insisted.
“I told her that my husband threatened me and then asked me to leave the house, or he would kill me if he returned from work to meet in the house. She said I wanted to go and sell the children with my friend! My own children! Unbelievable!
“IPO Funmi handcuffed and humiliated me to the extent that people were looking at me as if I was a common criminal all because I ran to the Police for safety.
“She took me to the house where I was staying with my children, to bring them back and arrested the mama and her daughter.
“IPO Funmi told them I abducted my children. She detained the four of us, saying we would only be released on bail. I bailed myself with N10,000, Mama and her daughter bailed themselves with N45,000, my friend bailed herself with N28,000.
“IPO Funmi said that I wanted to be promiscuous, which was why I left my husband’s house. She didn’t care if I was going to die.
“She ordered me to return to my husband’s house with my children or else my friend and her family would be in trouble. I had no options, so returned to my abusive marriage to avoid the wrath of IPO Funmi.
“Yesterday 12th of September 2023, I went to pick up my children’s stuff, which I forgot at Mama’s place, and my husband started beating me again.
“He said that it seemed I didn’t want to change. I ran to my mother’s place last night, he came there this morning, threatened to kill me, that anywhere he met me, I would be dead, and he said this in the presence of my mother.
“Please I need help from ACVPN. I just want to be safe. The Elere Police Station is working for my abusive husband.”
Reacting to the incident, the co-founder of ACVPN, Mr Ebenezer Omejalile, fuming, said: “With this report, IPO Funmi of Elere Police Station has been in the news for wrong reasons and over such inhuman practice. Now, she and her cohorts should know that the chicken has come to roost.
“We will spare anybody involved in this shameful act; IPO Funmi should face disciplinary action in accordance with the Nigeria Police Establishment Act 2020 for torturing a defenceless victim.
“In fact, such behaviour under the Nigeria Police Establishment Act 2020 attracts 25 years imprisonment.”
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