- I consulted a seer before I got to know my brother was locked up at police station – Relative
Nigerians have expressed concerns over indiscriminate arrests and incarceration by officers of the Nigeria Police Force across the country.
They lamented that the majority of the victims of their recurring raids are innocent of any crime that might have been preferred against them, alleging that men of various commands in the country embark on indiscriminate raids to extort innocent citizens.
Of more worrisome development to these aggrieved Nigerians is that those arrested are denied access to their families or lawyers, thus leaving their loved ones with no choice than to declare them missing once they did not hear from them for days.
Unwarranted and unnecessary detentions run contrary to the ideals of the Fundamental Rights provisions in Chapter IV of the 1999 Constitution.
Also, Sections 35(2)(4) and (5) of the 1999 Constitution prevent police from using excessive force to arrest suspects and those that need to be arrested have the right to know why they are being arrested and also to have the right to their lawyers or family members.
However, recent cases suggest that some police officers have been running afoul of the law as they indiscriminately arrest people beside the road, take them to their stations and confine them for days without arraignment and neither were they allowed to notify their loved ones of their arrest.
Many families are left in devastation and great anxiety whenever their loved ones disappear. They usually get to discover that they have been arrested and detained in police custodies after they started sharing missing person’s information on social media.
Adeleke Khalid, a resident of Lagos State was reported missing on October 16, 2024 around Aguda Surulere by his family members.
After about seven days of his disappearance, his family members got to know that he was indiscriminately arrested and detained by the police in the state without communication.
Also, another resident of Lagos State, Mrs. Confidence Chimerenma Onyekaonwu Uzoma explained how her husband, Onyekaonwu went missing for two days before he was found at a police station in the state.
“Last two weeks, I looked for my husband for two days and it was shocking for us to see him at a police station around Oshodi. They seized his phones and stopped him from making phone calls. It was when we started sharing his missing notice that someone told us that some police officers picked him up beside the road while returning home from work,” Uzoma narrated.
“Same way they wanted to take away my brother without information; luckily for us, his twin brother saw from a distance how they took his twin away right at an ATM point. They moved everybody at the ATM point for no reason, when the twin brother got there to see his brother, he was asked to come the next day morning, only for them to transfer him around 10pm in the night alongside other innocent ones to State CID and tag them cultists, forcing them to write statement but they refused saying they are not cultists, they only want to make withdrawals. My brother had to borrow a phone in the cell called me, I went from Bayelsa to Benin immediately, and that was how I saved all of them that were wrongly arrested by collecting the numbers of their parents and called them all, because they all never knew their children were even arrested,” another Nigerian, Cfloss Ugiagbe explained.
Narrating how she consulted a seer before discovering that her younger brother was rounded up and was locked up at a police station, Evans Chinonyerem Favour said, “My younger brother that came to visit me was arrested by the police in Abia State. The police didn’t inform me or allow him to call. I was mad, looking for my brother and whenever I called his line, it was ringing but no response. I was crying and asking what I will tell my parents. I had to involve a seer who told me not to panic that he is not in danger but in police custody. Two days later, one of the officers secretly gave him a phone to call me with a hidden number and told me where he was; I went there and bailed him with N50, 000 for doing nothing wrong.
I was just happy I found him because I died a million times.”
Meanwhile, Nigerians, including human rights activists have called on the leadership of the Nigeria Police to rein in the bad eggs among its rank and file.
A human rights activist, Harrison Gwamnishu expressed displeasure at the development, saying illegal actions by some police operatives are fuelling resentment by members of the public against the force.
Condemning the act, another Nigerian, Wilde Wilde, said, “I don’t understand who gave these people (police) this excessive powers to pick up Nigerians randomly without allowing them to contact their relatives. Isn’t it a violation of human right of the suspect in the country called Nigeria for the police to keep a suspect in the cell for more than 48 hours? It is only in Nigeria that the police lock up a suspect for four days without regard to his human right.”
A public affairs commentator, Kingsley Ifeanyichukwu, stated, “The government really has to look into this police brutality. This is the cause of EndSars that cost many lives. Few years down the line, they have started searching phones on the road and making unnecessary arrests just to extort young people. Kidnappers operate without interception and that is because the officers are busy looking for young guys with flashy cars to extort by leaving their primary job.”
When contacted, Police Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, ignored messages sent to him.
