Happiness Liberty, a housewife and mother of three has accused the Nigeria Police Force of detaining and torturing her, her husband, his siblings, their three children including an 11-month-old baby at the Igando Divisional Police Station in Ikotun-Igando Local Development Council Area.
Narrating her ordeal, Liberty, a resident of Igando stated that after the injuries inflicted on her, her husband and including their children, the police went ahead and arraigned the family to cover up for the torture.
According to her, their arraignment was to justify her incarceration with her children in police custody for days with accompanying threats not to grant any interview to the media or her husband and siblings would be killed.
She said their ordeal started on Sunday September 11, adding that they were detained and tortured for four days without food or water from September 11 to 14.
The mother of three stated that troubled started on the fateful day when they were returning from Church in the evening, a commercial motorcycle otherwise known as ‘Okada’ knocked her husband, and when he (husband) turned around and asked the driver why he hit him with his bike, rather than apologise, the rider who was later identified as a police officer attached to the Igando Police Division questioned whether he knew his identity.
While the argument went on, the police officer allegedly slapped her husband, and when her husband’s siblings, who were some distance behind, came to enquire what was going on, the policeman, who was identified as Martin A, equally slapped her younger sister who was carrying her 11-month-old baby.
In a Save-our-Souls (SOS) message sent to NaijaTimes with the heading: “Torture and illegal detention of my husband, his siblings, myself and my children,” Mrs. stated that the slapping of her younger sister who was carrying 11-month-old baby led to a brawl.
“Some moments later, a team of policemen intercepted us and bundled everybody to the Igando police station. When we got to the police station, all the police officers on duty started hitting us including my children to the extent that one of my husband’s siblings slumped and was revived hours later.
“After the beating, they detained my husband, his siblings, myself and my three children, whose ages are eight, seven years, and 11 months. They didn’t allow us to make calls; they treated us like criminals.
“I was released to go home on Monday, September 12, 24 hours after starving my children. My husband and his siblings were released from detention on September 14. After that, they (police) arraigned us before a Magistrate Court that granted us bail.”
Mrs Liberty further explained that the said police officer, Martin A had been threatening her family if they dared to grant an interview to the media.
According to residents of Igando who spoke with NaijaTimes today, the excesses of some Police Officer in the Igando Divisional headquarters has become unbearable, stressing that the assault was one of such excesses of officers attached to the Police Division.
Reacting to the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Lagos State Police Command, Benjamin Hundeyin, a Superintendent of Police, in a tweet on his Twitter handle @BenHundeyin said, “The entire family is at the Police Headquarters as I tweet this (I won’t post their picture for their privacy). The DPO and another officer involved are also here. The X-Squad department of the Command has commenced in-depth investigations.”
