Juliana Francis
A human rights activist, Mrs Esther Salisu, working with the Esther Child Rights Foundation, has narrated how some police personnel attached to Area M Police Command, located in the Idimu area of Lagos State, beat her black and blue for visiting their station with a complainant.
Salisu said that she was assaulted, because, according to the personnel, she was not invited into “the matter.”
She stated that even her attempts at explanation fell on deaf ears. She said that since she started advocacy for the enforcement of human rights and justice, this was one of the most terrifying experiences of her life.
The police personnel who attacked and beat her up has been identified as Supol Adebola, Inspector Stella, and Inspector Nike.
Recalling how the incident started, Salisu said Mr Emmanuel Adeyemi came to their office, to complain about his landlady making life unbearable for him and threatening him, and both were invited for an attempt at peaceful mediation and resolution.
According to Salisu, Adeyemi is a new tenant and had not spent a year in his apartment and for some unfathomable reason, his landlady, Tedia asked him to move out without so much as a quit notice.
Salisu said: “Adeyemi said that the landlady was threatening him, demanding he should vacate the apartment. We asked the landlady to give him a proper quit notice to her tenant. The landlady refused. We then asked her to take her tenant to court, but she also refused that suggestion as well. She walked out on the mediation meeting.”
Adeyemi would later call the organisation, to say that police called, saying that his landlady reported him.
Adeyemi expressed fear and distrust of the whole set-up and police invitation, which made the Executive Director of Esther Child Rights Foundation, Esther Ogwu, instruct Salisu to go with Adeyemi.
Salisu said: “The police were already monitoring Adeyemi through a series of phone calls. They asked his location, and the colour of his cloth, calling intermittently and then immediately after they sighted him, they asked him to come upstairs to their office along with his wife. When the police saw me, they became upset, insisting they didn’t invite a human rights activist into the case. I told them I was there because of the efforts we had already made concerning the case. Two female officers were ordered to march me out. They started beating and dragging me down the stairs. Some personnel downstairs came up to join in beating me along the staircase. I was treated like a common criminal. They seized everything and I had to beg for money from people to get to go back to my workplace.”
Salisu’s boss, Ogwu, said: “The woman was badly beaten, and she complained to me of body pains and was limping. She told me she was thrown down the staircase. The police had her bag, which contained her money, phone, and other valuables. It’s quite unfortunate what is happening in this country. I don’t know why police do not like human rights activists. I am surprised what the people who claimed to be protecting lives and property are doing.”
Ogwu opined that the police continued to hate human rights advocates because many of them do not believe in injustice and compromising cases.
She further said: “I asked my staff to go with Adeyemi so that she would tell me the conclusion so that we can all work together to engender peace. But instead, my staff returned to the office limping. Her identity card had been damaged, and I must say to the Inspector-General of Police, to tell his personnel to stop harassing and brutalising human rights activists. I also want the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr Abiodun Alabi, to probe the attack on Mrs Esther Salisu and ensure that the erring police personnel were brought to book. Again, it was not a criminal matter, so Salisu and Adeyemi had not committed any offence.”
Adewale, who witnessed the incident said that he was shocked that a woman could be so shabbily treated by police personnel, who ordinarily should be protecting Nigerians.
Responding to the question of whether Salisu was beaten, Adeyemi said: “Yes, she was beaten! When we got there, my landlady said I was threatening her. The first day the policemen called me that I should come to their office, I told them I was at an appointment. I promised to call them. They were upset by my response. They called me again, asking when I would be coming and I explained to them that because of the nature of my job, I wouldn’t be able to tell them the exact time I would be there. On Friday I called Madam Esther the human rights activist to go with us and she kindly asked madam Salisu to accompany us. When we got to Area M Police Command, I called the man, who said that we should come upstairs. When we got to the staircase, they collected all our phones. When we entered, they asked the human rights activist to introduce herself. They were upset and chased her out of the building. The way they treated her; was as if she was a common criminal. She was chased out and they refused to allow my wife and I to go after her. I heard her screaming and crying, saying she was not a criminal. It was terrible. When they came back, I read the petition brought to them by my landlady, saying that I was threatening her. I explained to them how I rented the place. I brought all the evidence, but they were not interested. It was only what my landlady said they were interested in listening to. They wanted to detain me from that Friday till Monday. I told them I wasn’t a criminal, and they collected N7,000 from me that day and then allowed me to leave at about 7: PM. When they asked when I would be vacating the apartment, my wife said December, they tried to shut her up. They said I must write a particular date I would leave, so I wrote September. I knew all they were doing were illegal because they gave me a higher education leaflet to write an undertaking instead of an official document.”
When Julianafrancisnews.com contacted the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Benjamin Hundeyin on the matter, he promised to find out the facts of the case, but at the time of filing this report, he was yet to do so.
