Torture: Group Blasts Police Over Brutality Against Innocent Citizens

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, Uncategorized Monday, April 21st, 2014

Mona Ogbeidi

A human rights group, Women Arise has decried the spate of unwarranted Police brutality against unarmed citizens.

While lamenting a disgraceful clip exposing an officer of the Nigerian Police Force, identified first as Tafa Muhammed, bullying on non-offending citizens, the President of the group, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin was delighted that the issue has been taken up by the police.

Nigeria’s Police Boss MD Abubakar

“We saw with pains, the deployment of state weapon in assaulting unarmed citizens. We observed with despondency, the unwarranted oppression of innocent citizens as depicted in the horrible video, which also involved dipping a victim in muddy water.

“At Women Arise, through diligence, we have located the victims and interviewed them for details of their torturous experience. From our interview of the victims, it is part of our findings that the victim had internal injury from the torture. We also found that the food seller, whose business policy of selling fish only to those that buy food from her, caused the policeman unwarranted frenzy, was further illegally detained, after the brutal torture.” She declared.

Odumakin asserted that swift action has been made to bring the offending officer to justice, while the police authority at the Federal level has ensured that the erring officer is taken up for mental check, and necessary step is being taken to interrogate his authentic official status in the Nigeria Police Force.

Continuing, the group reiterated the Nigerians police commitment to protecting the victims and other citizens who may be potentially unsafe from continued exposure to the erring officer.

“We obtained police statement thereafter; the erring officer has now been arrested. While we appreciate the swift action of the police in ensuring that the officer does not escape, as he was probably going to do.” Odumakin stated.

So far, the group has demanded that the erring officer, now identified properly as Nasir Muhammed by the police must be helped with a psychiatric check. We need be sure that men recruited into our police force have no traces of mental disorders.

Odumakin declared that the women group is putting up necessary efforts to make sure that the victims must now be taken up by the police, properly treated and compensated.

“We are still in touch with the victims and they have still not been contacted by the police as of the time we make this note.” Odumakin stated.

The active group has however, called on the police to dismiss erring police officer, noting that, “We must make good example of him to deter other officers who act with impunity, oppress citizens arbitrarily, or have disposition to do so.”

Odumakin revealed that, the group has resolved to mobilizing Nigerians to a protest against the police force on this singular act if the above demands are not met, enjoining all members of the Nigerian public to brace up for an impending mass protest should the police play family politics with this case.