• Police declare four wanted
Justice appears on the horizon for the three women that were assaulted in February, last year, at the Oba Morufu International Market, Ejigbo in Lagos State as the police yesterday paraded the Babaoloja of the market, Isiaka Waidi, and 11 other suspects.
They were paraded by the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) in charge of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Mr Chris Ezike, and the Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), Frank Mba, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), at the Adeniji Adele Police Station, Lagos Island.
The victims – two young girls and their mother – were tortured and brutalised by some people at the market for allegedly stealing pepper.
One of the girls, Juliana Agoma, reportedly died in Benin Republic, where she was receiving treatment after the ordeal in which she sustained serious injuries.
The police said four others, who are still in hiding, had been declared wanted. They added that their pictures would soon be made public for their easy identification.
Those declared wanted by the police are: Tiri, an alleged member of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), who was captured in the video footage and alleged to give stripped Juliana, her daughter, Ajoke, and the other victim, naked; Otepa Oluranti, Michael Abolore and another simply identified as Akeem.
In March, last year, an internet video, showing where the three females were being tortured went viral, drawing the ire of Nigerians, especially civil society groups, who demanded investigation of the video and the perpetrators’ arrest.
Mba said: “Waidi is said to be the mastermind of the dastardly act which culminated in the arrest, debasement, torture and extortion of N50, 000.”
Another suspect is Haruna Abdullahi and Buhari Yusuf, who mixed the concoction of pepper and alcoholic spirit that were applied on the bodies, including private parts of the victims. Others are: Saheed Adisa, Lateef Tijani, Ahmed Adisa, Oloruntoyin Dauda (Iya-Oja), Adekunle Adenuga, Jimoh Busari and Azeez Akinosun.”
He said the suspects were identified on a parade by eyewitnesses, who went further to reveal parts played by each suspect, assuring that the Force would work with Interpol to confirm the veracity of Juliana’s death.
Ezike said the suspects’ arrest was facilitated by civil society groups and the state Office of the Public Defenders (OPD).
Waidi denied being involved in the torture of the victims, saying that he was at home when security guards attached to the market called him that they had discovered persons behind the stealing of missing pepper and tomatoes in the market.
Waidi added: “When I got to the market, I was taken to their home. I found out that it was a little girl. I left instructions that they should hand them over to the police since I was rushing down to Alausa in Ikeja for a meeting. I didn’t even know the extent of what the security guards did to the woman and her children until I saw the video. I was not the person that committed the crime; it was the security guards.”
Nike Salami, 16, half-sister of the late Juliana said Waidi lied as she recounted how Waidi repeatedly kicked her mother, after others had stripped her naked.
“They said they would cut off my mother’s head. They told our landlord to give us quit notice, that we were thieves. They sent us out of the area and we went to live at my mother’s village,” said Nike. Mrs. Ajoke Agoma praised Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin for “relentlessly pursuing the case.
Okei-Odumakin, who said she had visited the late Juliana’s grave in Benin Republic, added: “We also wanted to prove a point that jungle justice does not pay.”
The Director of the OPD, Mrs. Omotola Rotimi, who said the case file would be forwarded to the Directorate of Public Prosecution, vowed: “We’ll ensure that justice is done in this case.”
Mba said the police would work with other security agencies, in the distribution of the pictures of the wanted four, so that people could alert the nearest police wherever they sighted them.
