A civil rights group, the Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice (CHRSJ) has raised an alarm over the plight of a victim of police brutality, Mr. Mutiu Adekunle.

Specifically, the group raised an alarm, saying some operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (F-SARS) have vowed to kill Adekunle after having been detained illegally for five-day at their facility located at Magbon in Ogun State.

Appraising the plight of Adekunle, the Executive Chairman of Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice (CHRSJ), Comrade Adeniyi, A. Sulaiman in a statement issued on Wednesday from his Ikeja, Lagos office has demanded immediate return of all items stolen by the operatives from Adekunle and other victims.

According to Sulaiman, Adekunle’s ordeal began on Tuesday, 23rd of August, 2016 when the operatives stormed his office located at 5 Kodesoh Street, Ikeja, Lagos demanding to see a colleague named Kamarudeen Hamzat (popularly known as Alfa) who was not around when the police officers came.

Unfortunately for Adekunle, he was arrested by the police officer after some people in the neighbourhood identified him as a friend and colleague of Hamzat who was wanted for his inability to fix a phone belonging to a customer on the due date as agreed between the two parties.

Sulaiman stated that in all, over 15 people who were seen on sight including customers who had called to repair their phones were picked up by the operatives who subsequently detained them in their facilities located at Magbon in Ogun State.

“From our findings, the way and manner these innocent people were picked up by the operatives left much to be desired as all of them who were unfortunate to have been found around on that day were severely tortured with many of them sustaining serious bodily injuries that saw them being hospitalized after they were left off the hook.” Sulaiman wrote in the statement.

He said that though many of the officers have never acted professionally in their operations, he lamented that many of them (the officers) have not been bearing their real names, rather they are known by their aliases by residents of the various communities.

He listed the errant police officers as bearing the following names; Swagger, Raufu, Bullet and Teejay whom he stated are currently undergoing investigation at the Kidnapping Department within the Zone 2 Command of the force located at Onikan, Lagos.

“We are happy that the trial of these officers is being carried out in response to a petition filed by the victim dated 19th September 2016 and it’s being handled by one officer, Abraham Otitoloju (07034324783 or 08082033286),” he said.

The activist revealed that the intervention of the police authorities led to the recovery of some of the items stolen from Adekunle and others but that two of the errant officers have refused to return the items in their possession since 2016 till date.

Some of the items carted away from those who were illegally arrested and detained included android phones, ipads, laptops and other instruments being used to repair handsets and other electronic products.

“We have been informed that two of the officers, namely Swagger and Raufu are of the habit of threatening Adekunle not to venture to ask for the items they took from him. The two promised to kill him, should he tries to seek a return of the items. We are using this medium to appeal to the Inspector-General of Police, the Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of Zone 2 to arrest and dismiss the affected officer.” He said.

“We are getting overstretched highlighting the illicit activities of operatives of the force attached to Magbon F-SARS. Not too long ago, we reported some officers, one Wole (08136714075 &08034104255 and his immediate boss (08037358379) for detaining some residents of the community, one Kayode Akinleye and others for one month. Another officer named Ogedengbe shot one Adetiba Sunday on his two legs.

“We are happy that their cases are being subjected to investigation at the Ogun State Police Command in Elewaran, Abeokuta for attempted murder and violation of fundamental human rights on the prompting of the Inspector-General of Police,” he said.

•Human rights activist and Executive Chairman, Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice (CHRSJ), Comrade Adeniyi Alimi Sulaiman

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