POLICE BRUTALITY: NSCDC PERSONNEL, RESIDENTS ASSAULTED, ILLEGALLY DETAINED IN OSUN POLICE CUSTODY
On Tuesday, October 22, 2024, at Elizabeth Estate in Osogbo, Osun State, a disturbing incident of barbaric police brutality occurred when a group of individuals claiming to be police officers in “ANKARA ” cloth with only jacket on top, drove recklessly into the estate with a private sienna vehicle, which is secured by the personnel of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Osun State Command, to purportedly arrest a suspect.
The personnel of NSCDC on duty, as trained officers, requested for means of identification which the individuals who claimed to be policemen failed to provide. Instead they resorted to intimidations . After their failure to identify themselves they left the premises of the estate.
According to the statement made available to the press by NSCDC CDPRO, ASC Kehinde Adeleke, Osun State command, the situation escalated the following day, Wednesday, October 23, 2024, when another group of police numbering about twenty(20) drove into the estate and descended on one NSCDC personnel, physically assaulting him and inflicting grievous bodily harm on him. The video of the incident is attached to the statement.
The officer’s uniform was torn, he was brutalized beyond description, disarmed, handcuffed like a common criminal, and forcefully taken to Ataoja Division before being moved to the Police State Headquarters.
Efforts to resolve the issue amicably were made by the Commandant of NSCDC, Osun State command, Dr. Michael Adaralewa, who raised a team of senior officers, who visited the Police Headquarters. However, the police refused to release the detained NSCDC personnel. They concocted unfounded lies of deflation of their vehicle tyres. When the team asked if the same vehicle was still at the scene, they said no, then the questions we asked if any vulcanizer fix the tyres. “No” was the answer. The team also demanded if the vehicle was towed. The answer was also negative. The big question then is how did the vehicle that conveyed the policemen leave the incident scene?
Unfortunately, despite assurances by the police team that immediately NSCDC confirmed the identity of the officer in their custody, he would be released, a confirmation letter was taken to police state headquarters, yet they never released him since Wednesday 23rd October, 2024. He was just released this afternoon, today Friday, 25th, after he had been made to undergo more humiliating treatment in the hands of policemen on duty.
The statement added that the Osun NSCDC boss, Michael Adaralewa, has therefore, called for thorough investigation into the matter and bring perpetrators to book. “We demand there should be no sacred cow in the matter, and we are not going to allow the matter to be swept under the rug”
Signed
ASC Kehinde Adeleke
CDPRO
Osun State command.