Controversy Trails Man’s Death In Police Custody ..Family Rejects Police Explanations

 

How did 35-year-old farmer Olatunji Jimoh die in the custody of Kwara State Police Command on December 20 last year? Did he commit suicide as alleged by the command barely six hours after his relatives left with a promise to come for his bail the following morning? If yes, how did he get the string he used to hang himself inside a police cell?

Was he tortured to death as alleged by the family? Were violent marks seen on his body as evidence of torture? Was his organ harvested inside the police station as alleged by social media activist, Martins Otse alias VeryDarkMan?

The above questions are begging answers as controversy continues to dog Jimoh’s sudden and unnatural death.

The deceased was alleged to have been arrested by detectives attached to the Special Investigation Bureau (SIB) of the Kwara State Police Command, Ilorin on December 19, following allegations he owed his senior colleague at Olam Farms, Gabriel Sunday.

Jimoh was allegedly arrested while on a bike after he was lured out of his house in the Balogun-Fulani area of Ilorin by a friend around 5pm.

The friend who allegedly lured him out was said to have jumped off the bike while the policemen apprehended and took Jimoh to the command headquarters in Ilorin where he was detained.

According to the family, Jimoh contacted a relative around 6pm on that day and notified them about his arrest. His family was said to have rushed to the station and expressed their willingness to pay the money but the policemen- Mr. Adekunle Emmanuel Ogunshola, Mr. Emmanuel Ajiboye, and Mr. Oluwole Bamiteko- allegedly refused to grant bail to Jimoh on the grounds that the complainant was not available and asked them to return the next day.

But few hours after departing the police command, Jimoh’s sister, was said to have received calls from the station asking the family to come and get him. Being a nursing mother, the sister was said to have explained to the detectives that it was already late and that they would come in the morning as directed.

The Balogun family alleged that the calls to Jimoh’s sister started between 9pm and 10pm, then continued from 2am to 7am when the family gathered in front of the police headquarters only to be told around 8am that he committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell.

Immediately, the family started demanding answers from the police command as they could not comprehend how the son they left in custody the previous night with a promise to come for him in the morning was now dead and in the mortuary.

Four months after the incident, the circumstances surrounding Jimoh’s death has remained a riddle to the family, whose pain is worsened by alleged complicity of the state police command.

They have also decried the non-release of the autopsy report to the family by the police, adding that the policemen who curiously denied Jimoh bail despite the fact that the money he owed his superior (a civil matter) was brought that night, had not been punished.

Narrating their ordeal, the deceased’s mother, Adijat Moriyike Jimoh and elder brother, Ismail, alleged that he was tortured to death, urging concerned authorities to investigate the matter and arrest the culprits in order to get justice for Jimoh.

They alleged that the police operatives assaulted and broke the head of the deceased with a hard object, adding that blood was gushing from his nose.

Ismail said: “My brother was said to be owing someone the sum of N220,000 and measures were being taken to settle the debt. He was arrested with his phone and N75,000 at about 5:30pm on December 19, and by 7:30am on December 20, he had died.

“We were called a few hours after midnight of December 20 to come and bail him, when police said they don’t know what’s happening to my brother and that he’s been taken to hospital.

“By the time we got to the headquarters early in the morning we were told to meet them at General Hospital, Surulere, Ilorin.

“There, we saw at the mortuary that he was beaten to death with blood all over him. They said he hung himself with the cloth he was wearing inside the cell.

“My brother is a tall person who could not have killed himself inside the kind of police cell that they have.

“The person my late brother was owing money is an elder brother to a policeman. The person apparently instructed his younger brother to torture my brother.

“When we got to the mortuary, we saw that his face was swollen, blood oozed from his nose and there were bruises all over his body.”

Also, a spokesman for the family, Owolabi Olumuyiwa-Tayo, told The Nation yesterday that they were yet to get the autopsy report four months after Jimoh’s death.

He accused the police of publishing a fake autopsy on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Yoruba, adding that they have continued to demand the original autopsy report from the police without success.

“The second day (after the BBC Yoruba show), we demanded the original result of the autopsy at the DIG office Area 10 Abuja. If you take a critical look at the result they gave BBC Yoruba, you will see clearly that the last page was not in any way signed.

“During the course of my investigation, I was privileged to have knowledge of the original result. The original result contains nine pages of details about the cause of his death which totally ruled out Olatunji hanging himself.

“He died as a result of left ventricular failure and hypertension. We have written to the office of the CIA FCID that they should release the original result before we know if we will conduct another autopsy.

“They first told us that we should look for a pathologist and also fund the process ourselves, including the policemen who will follow us to Ilorin. That was when we told them that the family did not have any money to pay a pathologist or mobilise those police officers.

“The day the news reached the Force Headquarters in Abuja, Force Public Relations Officer called them to the IG’s office. When they came back, we were told that we should look for our pathologist and that they were ready to foot the bills.

“They had initially told us that we were the ones to foot the bill. But at this point we got a pathologist and his advice is that we cannot conduct another one until we see the first result.

“Meanwhile, the pathologist added that the body would have deteriorated and we might not get accurate results as in the first one.”

Asked about claims by Otse that Jimoh’s organ was harvested in custody and there were bloodstains in the cell where he was kept, the family spokesman said he could not say anything in that regard until the police released the authentic autopsy report.

Continuing, the family said the case was already in court, insisting that they want justice for their late son.

“The family is crying out to the public and the Nigeria Police Force to thoroughly investigate the case so that it will not be swept under the carpet,” it said.

The deceased’s family and the Balogun Fulani community of Ilorin called on Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq to intervene in the case.

According to the family, a letter has been sent to the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, requesting his intervention.

“We are asking that the officers who unlawfully arrested him be punished. We also ask that the welfare and education of his two children be addressed, and that his two aged parents be looked after due to their failing health from the shock they suffered.

“Additionally, we demand that the Nigeria Police Force pay damages,” Olumuyiwa-Tayo, who doubles as the Convener Justice for Olatunji added.

Meanwhile, two days after the death of Jimoh, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kayode Egbetokun visited the family in Ilorin and pledged that an impartial investigation would be conducted.

The police chief also directed the Force Criminal Investigations Department (FCID) to take over the investigation and ensure there was justice and accountability.

Giving an update on the case, the IG told The Nation that police investigation was yet to be concluded.

IGP Egbetokun said: “When this incident got to my attention, I immediately directed an investigation into it, and the report of the investigation just got to me on Thursday.

“After reading the interim investigation report, I asked that the only area where I observed inconsistency should be resolved.

“This will be done by the weekend and the final investigation report will be ready on Monday.”

The IGP described as false alarm, claims that the deceased’s organ was harvested in police custody, adding that no part of his body was cut except in the process of performing an autopsy.

The police chief also stated that no mark of violence was seen on Jimoh’s body.

He again commiserated with the family over the death of their son, assuring them that justice would be served in the case

The Nation