A complainant, Mrs. Remigus Ifeyinwa Clementina Wednesday narrated before the Independent Investigation Panel on Human Rights Violations by the defunct SARS and other units of the Nigerian Police how her 80-year-old father, Pa Pius Ajaegbu was allegedly brutalized and detained by the Police, leading to his death.
Testifying via zoom before the panel, the petitioner said that her father’s ordeal started when he went out to buy ‘akara’ (a local food made from beans) and was accosted by a team of Policemen who were on a raid within the Oblande-Oshodi area in Lagos state.
According to the complainant, when she learned that her father was being accosted by the Police, she rushed to the scene and asked what the matter was and nobody answered her, rather she alleged the Police asked her to leave otherwise they would shoot her.
It was at this point, she told the panel that one of the Police personnel slapped her father, another slapped him again, while the third officer hit him and that made him to collapse and fall down.
Thereafter, she said that the Police whisked her frail and elderly father away to the Police station and while in custody, he was unable to pass urine for one month.
She told the panel presided over by Dr. Garba Tetengi (SAN) on behalf of the Chairman, Justice Suleiman Galadima (SAN) that her father died as a result of internal injuries from the police, coupled with other health challenges he developed while in custody.
According to her, she made several visits to the Police station in order to secure the release of her father but to no avail and rather she was told to stop coming otherwise they will shoot her
She stated that at some points, her father was arraigned in court and detained at Badagry Prison in Lagos.
She narrated that when the family eventually secured his bail he was immediately taken to the hospital, following the several tortures suffered by her father in the hands of the Police, the old man eventually died on June 24, 2018 and was subsequently buried.
Against the foregoing, when asked of her prayer, she told the panel that she wants a compensation of N50 million as general damages, and for the expenses, she made in trying to treat her father in the hospital, as well as the burial expenses.
In his cross-examination, counsel to the Police, Kenneth Egbuchua asked for the complainant to state the offense of her elderly father and she said he was a victim of circumstances, having gone out while the said Police raid lasted.
The matter was adjourned till March 22, 2022, for defense.
