New Telegraph

Police tortured my husband to death –Widow

A housewife has accused the police at the Zone 2 Command, Lagos, of torturing her 38-year-old husband, Yemi Taiwo, to death. Taiwo was being detained at the Zone 2 Command after he was arrested for allegedly planning to abduct the monarch of Isiu town in the Ikorodu area of Lagos.

The deceased, a land agent, was arrested alongside one of his friends, Femi Animashaun, by a combined team of local vigilantes in Ikorodu, popularly known as Onyabo, and some palace thugs known as Tobalase at Isiu community. According to a video made available to our correspondent, Taiwo and Animashaun were stripped and tortured on the premises of Ikorodu North Local Council Development Area.

The wife of the deceased, Olabisi Taiwo, who wept uncontrollably while speaking with our correspondent on the phone, said her husband left home at the Gberigbe area of Ikorodu for Isiu, where he bought some plots of land and also worked before he was arrested. She said: “He told me that he would first stop at his boss’ office before going to the site but he never came back to meet his two children and I.

“About 11pm on that fateful day, his younger brother, Deji, who is staying with us, rushed home and told me that he heard that his brother had been killed. “I was very distraught and quickly lost my senses but after some hours they called back that he was not dead but that he had been arrested with some people who were planning to abduct the monarch of Isiu. “We didn’t hear anything until late in the evening on Friday when I was told that he had been taken to the annex of Zonal Investigative Bureau at Ladegboye area by some policemen, who were invited.” The mother of two said she went there the same day. She said: “I was not allowed to see him by the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) who was identified as Lati. We were told that he was not there.

“I went there again on Saturday and Sunday and was still not allowed to see him, but on that Sunday, one of his brothers, Awobajo, who went there to see him, was also detained by the policemen. “Awobajo was later released on Monday and he told me that the IPO asked him where my husband’s properties were and that he would sell them off, because we don’t know the gravity of our offence. “Early on Tuesday morning, the policemen brought my husband and Femi out of the cell and they were tortured in preparation for their transfer to Zone 2 Headquarters at Onikan, Lagos.

“I was told that on their way to Onikan, some land thugs – Lanre, Taiwo, Kehinde, and Baba Doyin – sprinkled water on them. “I leant that when my husband and Femi were taken to Zone 2, when a superior officer saw the conditions of my husband and his friend, with injuries all over their bodies, he rejected them and told the IPO to go and treat them first before he could allow them into the cell. “It was while they were returning them back to their annex at Ikorodu that my husband died and the IPO is now saying that he does not know what to do again.

He does not want to release the body of my husband to me. “I am appealing to the Inspector General of Police to come to my aid. Those who connived with the police to kill my husband are bragging to have the support of powerful monarchs and the Lagos State government. I don’t want my husband to die in vain.” The Zonal Police Public Relations Officer (ZPPRO), DSP Hauwa Idris, refused to speak on Taiwo’s widow’s allegations that her husband was tortured to death in police custody. She said: “I cannot confirm any story now, I am busy, we are hosting a GOC. Call me later.”

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