*Suspects tortured through mob action – Police
*Suspects notorious thieves – Community
ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi
Prison Inmate Development Initiative (PIDI-Nigeria), a Human Rights Group, has petitioned the Commissioner of Police, Bauchi State, Lawal Jimeta, accusing some officers and men of the state command of allegedly torturing two suspected chicken thieves to death.
A third suspect also allegedly tortured is critically ill and is receiving treatment in an undisclosed hospital in Bauchi metropolis.
The petition dated July 23, 2020, and signed by a Human Rights Defender, Mbami Iliya, PIDI alleged that the suspects stole 24 chickens from a retired Police Officer who lodged a complain to the Police.
PIDI, in its petition which was copied to the National Rights Commission and the Human Rights Agenda Network, and obtained by our Correspondent, requested the Commissioner of Police to charge all those involved in the alleged torture, extortion and extrajudicial killing of the suspects.
Iliya said that their findings by his organization revealed that the suspects, Ibrahim Kapala, Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulwahab Bello, were alleged to have broken into the house of a retired Police Officer and allegedly stole 24 chickens.
According to him, the suspects were arrested following a complain made to the Police against them by the retired Officer, who later came back and reported that he had found 13 of the chickens.
He alleged that the alleged torture, extortion and extrajudicial killing of two of the suspects happened on the 21st of July, 2020, at about 9.00am over an allegation of stealing chickens was reported to Prison Inmates Development Initiative (PIDI-Nigeria).
He said: “The Monitoring and Evaluation unit of PIDI-Nigeria did a thorough investigation of the case.
“From our findings, it was revealed that the three suspects, Ibrahim Kapala, Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulwahab Bello were alleged to have committed theft of chickens from a retired police officer who went and lodged a complaint against them.
“They were arrested on the suspicion that they committed theft by carting away 24 chickens, however, the complainant later came back and reported that he has found 13 out of his chickens.
“Also, from our findings, it shows that the victims were alleged to have confessed carting away only five chickens and they also took the police to the buyer which led to his arrest.
“The available information made known to us show that the said buyer had already slaughtered one out of the 5 chickens while the remaining four were recovered.”
Iliya said that the buyer was ordered to pay for the five chickens again at the rate of N2,000 in which he did and also paid for his bail.
He added that their findings also revealed that the Policemen ordered the suspects to pay for the remaining six untraced chickens pointing out that the suspects paid a total sum of N 22,000 for the chickens and N8,000 as bail condition.
“However, despite fulfilling the bail condition, they were denied bail and thereafter the Police subjected them to inhuman and degrading torture,” he alleged.
The Human Rights Activist further alleged that: “Due to the torture, one Ibrahim Kapala (27) lost his life in the process. Due to severe torture, one Ibrahim Babangida also injured his spinal cord, neck, two arms and left leg. Then Abdulwahab Bello lost his two legs due to thorough torture.
“Findings showed that they were thereafter dumped in their respective homes and were tagged armed robbers. Our investigation also shows that the Policemen denied beating them and claimed that it was those they went to rob that killed Ibrahim Kapala.
“The investigation carried out shows that Ibrahim Babangida was placed on life support in State Specialist Hospital in Bauchi but we received a call from his parents that he could not survive it and later gave up the ghost today being 23rd July, 2020 in the morning.
“On the other hand, Abdulwahab Bello was left at home with his legs rotten, head and body filled with bruises as there is no money for him to be taken to hospital.”
According to him, PIDI viewed the “intentional killings” of the two men as against their fundamental human rights as written in Chapter IV Section 33 subsection 1 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution as amended.
He said that the “heartless torture” of Abdulwahab Bello is against his fundamental human rights as written in
Chapter IV Section 34 subsection 1a of the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 as amended “that no person shall be subject to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment.”
PIDI, demanded that the Police Officers should be summoned to state who gave him the right to extort the victims, violate their fundamental rights and also torture them to the point where two of them died.
The Bauchi State Police Command in a reaction, denied the allegations that its personnel were engaged in the dehumanizating acts which led to the death of two suspected thieves while in Police custody.
Reacting in an interview with journalists on Saturday, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Command, Ahmed Wakili, said that there was no truth in the allegations by PIDI Nigeria that the suspects died in Police custody due to torture.
He said that the duty of the Police was to preserve lives and prosecute suspects.
Wakili, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, explained that information available to the Police was that the three suspects were mobbed when they broke into a farm and stole a number of chickens after beating the security guard at the farm to a pulp.
The Police Spokesman assured that the Force will not relent in its resolve to protect lives and properties of innocent residents even as he warned that the Command will not compromise security of the state.
Meanwhile, a community Leader, Abdullahi Bẹni alleged that the Doya area of Bauchi metropolis has been invaded by boys who have nothing doing apart from stealing domestic animals and other valuables.
He explained that the said boys (deceased) had gone to operate somewhere and they were caught by the residents who beat them to a pulp.
Beni, a retired Police Officer said: “The Police only went to rescue them from the mob action, I believe that the two of them died as a result of the injuries they got from the beating”.
The Chairman of a local security committee popularly called ‘Yan Komiti’ resident in the area, Bala Adamu Jumba, claimed that the boys have become a terror group in the area just as he too absolved the Police of any complicity in the death of the boys.
Leave a Reply