Infringement on human rights by any person or group anywhere in the world is criminal. It is worse if carried out by a law enforcement agent such as the police. The worst is when the victim dies in custody. Rather than remain exceptions, torture and killing of suspects while in detention, as heinous as they are, have almost become norms with the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).
Only recently, an 18-year-old tea vendor, Faiz Abdullahi, allegedly died in police custody as a result of the alleged torture he suffered during interrogation at the New Barracks Divisional Police Office in Kaduna State. Faiz was arrested by vigilantes who handed him over to the police over alleged theft. His mother, Maryam Abdullahi, and brother, Adamu Tukur, said Faiz was arrested in connection with a bag of sugar he found on a farm near their house in Gobirawa community, Hayin Banki, Kawo, Kaduna.
Faiz was said to have told his mother before his arrest that he found a bag of sugar inside a farm near their house when he went to ease himself, and that he immediately alerted the owner of the farm and left the bag of sugar with the farmer. Faiz’s mother said a day after the bag was discovered, her son was arrested and that she witnessed how he was tortured at the police station. The victim’s brother, Adam, said that when he went to see Faiz two days later, the police told him he was at the Barau Dikko Hospital receiving treatment, where he later died.
Faiz’s parents have vowed to seek justice for the deceased, saying they would not forgive those responsible for his death. The deputy spokesman of the Kaduna State Police Command, Mukhtar Hassan, said the Commissioner of Police (CP), had ordered an investigation and assured that justice would be done.
It would be recalled that in April this year, Erasmus Emhenya, who was arrested over alleged murder, died on April 6, 2023, in the custody of the police in the FCT. While the FCT Police Command did not deny the death in custody, it said the victim was not tortured. In January this year, a suspect identified as Uchenna, died in police custody in Anambra State. Uchenna was arrested alongside two others for fighting and was in detention at the Police Annex in Awkuzu when he died. It was reported that the suspect’s father had gone to bail him but was asked to pay N150,000, and that he was working to raise the money when the death of his son was announced; an allegation denied by the spokesperson of the Anambra State Police Command, DSP Toochukwu Ikenga, who also said the suspects were arrested for robbery and not fighting.
Similarly, Omolola Ejioye died in May, 2021, while in the custody of the Lagos State Police Command. Ejioye was arrested when policemen stormed a robbery scene in the Ladega area in Ikorodu where he had gone to visit someone. Also, in September, 2021, a 28-year-old fresh graduate of the University of Uyo (Uniuyo), Kubiat Akpan, who was arrested by the police when he was sitting with friends at a popular store in Uyo, died from alleged torture while in custody. Akpan’s lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, said the autopsy report invalidated the claim by the police that the student died of illness. The death in custody of the Bayelsa State Police Command, also in September, 2021, of Goodluck Ovieteme triggered a protest in the Biogbolo area in Yenagoa.
Nigerians still recall that death of suspects in custody, police brutality and extrajudicial killing were the main accusations that triggered the #EndSARS protests in 2020. There would be no reason for suspects to die in custody if the police adhere to extant laws on detention, which according to the country’s 1999 Constitution should only be for a reasonable time. Whereas “a reasonable time” is defined in Section 35, Subsection 5(a) of the Nigerian Constitution as “a period of one day”, Subsection 5(b) further states that “a period of two days or such longer period as in the circumstances may be considered by the court to be reasonable.” The detention, therefore, of arrested suspects for more than 48 hours without being charged to court contradicts the provisions of the constitution.
While we condemn in strong terms the death of suspects in police custody, its unceasing recurrence only confirms the failure by the government and police authorities in their promise after the #EndSARS protests to bring about improvements in human rights violations.
We call upon Civil Liberty Organisations to educate the Nigerian public more on how to seek redress over their usurped rights, including approaching the Legal Aid Council (LAC). Training and re-training of personnel should always be a priority for the police.
While we call for the compensation of families of suspects that died in police custody, Daily Trust calls for the immediate probe into the death of Faiz and such other cases that have not been investigated with a view to transparently prosecute the officers involved. These deaths cannot continue!
