*She’s lying, says DPO
Juliana Francis
A woman, who introduced herself as Happiness Liberty, has accused Igando Police Station, Lagos State Police Command, of torture and illegal detentions of her husband and his siblings.
According to Happiness, her travail started on 11th September 2022 at 7:22 PM, when she and her family members were returning from church.
She recounted that a motorcycle rider hit her husband, Favour with his motorcycle and Favour had asked him if he was blind. The cyclist, who they later found out was a policeman identified as Martins, asked them if they knew who he was.
Happiness said: “My husband asked him who he was and further asked him if he was God. My husband’s younger brother, Promise Sunday, who was holding my baby, asked what was the matter and the cyclist, Martins suddenly pushed Promise, who was holding my 11-month-old baby. I rushed and collected my son from Promise, I then asked Martins if he had a wife or children at home. He pushed me also, that was when my husband got angry and fought him. As the fight was going on, a man whom I didn’t know told Martins that what he was doing was wrong. As a police officer, he was not supposed to be seen fighting on the roadside with civilians without his uniform.
“That was when we got to know he was a police officer and immediately my husband stopped fighting him and said to him, ‘so you are a police officer and you are doing this, I am so disappointed.’ My younger sister went to him and said ‘Oga what you did is very wrong, so because you are an officer mean we should run away from the world?’ Martins slapped my sister and the slap got my 11 months old son. I collected my son and soothed him. Martins started beating my sister and my sister held him.”
Happiness said that they were all finally taken to Igando Police Station, where officers, who were on duty, without waiting to hear their own side of the story, allegedly descended on Favour, beating him black and blue.
She said: “They tortured my husband and his siblings to an extent that my brother-in-law fainted and still they didn’t release us to go home. They detained my husband, his siblings, myself and my three children, ages eight, seven and 11 months. They refused to allow us to make phone calls and treated us like criminals. On Monday, 12th September, at 7:30 pm I was allowed to go home. My husband and his siblings are still in detention today 14th September 2022.
When julianafrancisnews.com (JFNews) called the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Igando Police Station, a Superintendent of Police (SP) Gbadegesin Joshua Toyin, to hear Igando Police Station’s side of the story, the DPO denied that Favour or any person was tortured. He, however, admitted that Favour and others were detained.
According to him, the matter was charged to court yesterday, but the court did not seat. The matter, he stressed, had been registered and this means it was still a live matter.
He explained that the police had to detain Favour and others because they assaulted a police officer, to the point of inflicting severe injuries on him.
He explained that the injury to the officer was so serious that the officer had to be rushed to hospital, where he is presently battling to live, and since they did not know whether the officer would survive or not, they had to detain Favour and others.
He added: “They ganged up and beat up the officer and his condition is not too good. This officer is very massive in size and yet they were able to bring him down and pound him. There are others still at large. When people told them that he was an officer, they asked, ‘and so what?’ The woman that is making this allegation has been begging and pleading, along with other people that the matter should not be taken to court. But we want the matter to be taken to court. They came with a lawyer yesterday, who after he saw the condition of the policeman started pleading on their behalf. I don’t understand people; how can you be pleading and still go out to make false allegations of torture? Anyway, based on the pleading of their lawyer and his professional intervention, we are looking at a way to settle the matter.”
