BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
Two female awaiting trial inmates at the Ilesa Correctional Centre in Osun State, Joy Esu Ogunmba and Olawoyin Aina, have accused some policemen of sexual assault.
The female suspects, alleged of kidnapping and armed robbery, said that the policemen, attached to the Anti-Kidnapping Unit and Intelligence Department of the Nigeria Police Force, in the Osun State Command, made several attempts on them.
According to them, the police officers are in the habit of trying to have their ways with female suspects in detention under the guise that they could help them to secure their release.
Ogunmba, who was specifically arrested of alleged kidnapping sometimes in 2018, said that while in the custody, she was sexually exploited by an officer named Taofeek Ganiyu.
The inmate, a married woman, said that Ganiyu slept with her twice in a room at the State Criminal Investigations Department, Osogbo, with the promise that he would assist in securing her release.
About three years after, she said that she still feels bad recalling how she was sexually harassed by the cop. She lamented that the police officer failed to fulfill his promise as she was later arraigned in court and subsequently remanded at the Ilesa Correctional Centre.
“He said that he wanted to help me but before doing that, he would have sex with me. What he told me then was that he would come to the prison alongside my belongings and bail me out. Officer Taofeek told me not to be afraid, that he would not disappoint me
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Ogunmba relayed her ordeal during the visit by a Non-Governmental Organisation, Monsurat Ajoke Foundation, to the female inmates at the correctional facility recently.
Recalling how Ganiyu slapped and fondled her breasts before having a carnal knowledge of her, she said, “I was arrested for kidnapping on February 23, 2018 and I was remanded since March 28, 2018. After two days of my arrest at the state CID, Osogbo, one Police officer at the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Command, named Taofeek (Ganiyu) brought me out of the cell around 2:30am. He said I should come and write my statement.
“He slapped me when I was coming out of the cell. I told him I didn’t know how to write, so, I narrated everything to him. During the narration, he fondled my breasts and I resisted. He told me to cooperate but I told him to stop.
“He said that he wanted to help me but before doing that, he would have sex with me. What he told me then was that he would come to the prison alongside my belongings and bail me out. Officer Taofeek told me not to be afraid, that he would not disappoint me.
“I later allowed him and he had sex with me. He had sex with me at two different times during my stay at the state CID, because I spent one month and a week there. I was later arraigned in court and I never set my eyes on officer Taofeek since then. Though I don’t know his rank, his name is Taofeek Ganiyu and he is from the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Police.”
Similarly, Aina, a 25-year-old armed robbery inmate at the correctional centre, claimed that she was sexually harassed by a policeman during her detention period at the SCID, Osogbo.
According to her, a police officer simply known as Dare, who was part of the team that arrested her, demanded for sex from her as a pre-condition to helping her out of her predicament.
Olawoyin said that “On August 8, 2018, the police raided our house in Ede and arrested my husband, two kids and I. We were detained at the Osun State CID in Osogbo. Later, the kids and my husband were admitted to bail with the aid of my mother-in-law having paid the sum of N200, 000. I was left in the cell.
“On the night of our arrest, one tall and fair complexioned police officer named Dare from the Intelligence Department came to my cell around 12:00am. He was part of the team that came to arrest me. He brought me out under the pretense that he wanted to take my statement, which they had done earlier. He later said that he was willing and ready to secure my bail on the condition that I agree to have sex with him. I told him that I could not as my husband was also in the cell.
“There was another police officer they called Babalawo; he usually comes into the cell through the window. He would demand from all female suspects in the cell that we should play with him. He would fondle our breasts and also finger our private parts, or take us out one after the other to perpetrate the evil act. We were about five females in the cell then.
“I was later arraigned in court and remanded at the correctional centre on November 19, 2018,” she said.
When contacted, the authorities of the Osun State Police Command promised to investigate the alleged sexual exploitation against the two female inmates.
The Command’s spokesperson, Superintendent of Police, Yemisi Opalola, said that the Commissioner of Police in the state, Wale Olokode, had ordered an investigation into the allegations.
Opalola said that the police commissioner would not spare any officer or men of the Command who, at one time or the other, took advantage of suspects in any case.
“Investigations have begun into the matter. The Commissioner of Police wants to get to the root of the matter. He is a no-nonsense man. He respects the rights of everybody, including that of the suspects because they are yet to be pronounced guilty by the court. You can be rest assured of our sincerity of purpose. We shall pin down any police officer who, at one time or the other, took advantage of suspects in any case,” she assured.
