Map of Bauchi State
ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi –
A combined team of police operatives attached to the Yelwa Division and some vigilante have allegedly tortured a 33-year old man to death in Bauchi state, NATIONAL ACCORD had learnt.
It was gathered that the deceased, whose name was given as Dauda Danladi, was arrested by the team of security agents in front of his shop located in Yelwa Kagadama, a sub-urb of Bauchi metropolis at about 9pm on Thursday and was taken to the Yelwa Division, where he was allegedly tortured to death.
An eyewitness, Sheba Babangida, who sells “akara” close to the deceased shop, told our correspondent when the police and the vigilante came, they started arresting people from snooker spot to the deceased who charges phone in his shop without telling them their crime.
She said: “We were doing our business and we even chatted with him and laughed and he went into his shop and later came out. From no where, some policemen came and started arresting youths in the area”.
“When they arrested him in front of his shop, we pleaded with them to release him but they refused and forcefully took him into the car they came with, and they were many, that was around 9 PM”.
“The next day, I couldn’t go to the station because I wasn’t feeling too well but someone came and told me that the man that was arrested last night is dead. I went and confirmed from one man selling meat close to where our shop is and he said it was true.”
She added that as soon as she heard it, she looked for his house and went there and confirmed that it was true.
Another eyewitness, Liatu Nuhu, who sells groundnut milk and rice gruel close to the shop of the deceased also said that the police and the vigilante came in their vehicle at about 9pm and when they arrested the deceased, they tried to prevail on them to release him, but they refused.
“I was doing my business when, suddenly, the police and some vigilante came, more than 10 of them and started arresting people. The DPO came down from the vehicle and directed them, “arrest him!” “Arrest him!”
“They arrested the boys playing snooker game, others who were chatting and the deceased who was standing in front of his shop. We kept telling them not to arrest him, we told them that he is our neighbour here and we know him to be someone of good character, why would they arrest him, but they still took him away.
“Today (Friday) in the morning we went to the Police station in the morning and I later left. And around 10.15am, when I returned, I saw the wife of the deceased crying. I ask her what happened, she told me that her husband had died.”
The immediate younger sister of the deceased, Dorathy Danladi, said her sister in-law called her Thursday night to inform her that her husband had been arrested.
She said that her mother and her sister in-law went to the Police station in the morning to see him. Later, my sister in-law called me from there that they told her that my brother had fainted and was in the hospital.
“She told me on phone that the police asked her if he was on drugs and she told them yes. Since they got married, they haven’t been able to have any children because he has an infection. So they are both taking the traditional medicine.”
The deceased’s younger sister added that: “since he slept in the station and they told us he was in the hospital, we decided to take the medicine with us and when we got to the station, they examined it closely for a long time and they kept dragging their feet and saying a lot if things that we didn’t understand”.
“They asked my brother’s wife to write a statement which she did and we went outside and sat. They kept the medicine and a little while, they called my mother and my sister in-law inside an office and they told her that my brother was dead.
“I was outside and I suddenly heard a shout and I just concluded that the worst had happened. I rushed inside and that was how I confirmed that he was dead.”
She said that she fell on the ground, started shouting and rolling on the ground and “out of anger, I took a stone and with it, I broke the glass of one of the windows.
“I ran out and a Policeman caught me and dragged my in the ground as a dog and I had to bite him before he let me go. As I speak with you, my leg is hurting me because of how he dragged me on the ground.”
She said that the family is yet to get any official statement from the police on how their brother, who was their breadwinner, died.
“In fact, they have refused to give us his corpse. We want them to give us his corpse so that we can confirm what they are saying because we know that when they arrested him last night, he was hale and hearty,” she said.
The Commissioner of Police, Bauchi State, Sylvester Alabi, when contacted, told journalists on phone that five people were arrested with a revolver pistol in the area and they later released because they were found innocent while the other two were still being held at the police station.
According to him: “The deceased was not even part of them, he was about 200 meters ahead. He was gasping for breath in his business place and the Police assisted him to the hospital and then, he died.
“If Police had not assisted him to the hospital, people would have said they are bad people, Police now assisted, now na wahala (sic).”
“I have told the PPRO to go to the media and tell people the correct version of the story.”
As of the time of filing this story, no official statement from the police had been issued to journalists.