The killing last Thursday of a teenager by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Ado-Ekiti has added to allegations of extra-judicial killings by the police in Ekiti State, writes SULAIMAN SALAWUDEEN
When four armed policemen besieged a building Ilaja, Ojumose in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, at about 12noon last Thursday, the residents knew there was trouble and before long, they got it in full.
Wielding guns and looking menacing, the policemen from the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) of the State Police Command barged into the house shouting: “Where is he? Where is he?” They moved from one room to another, forcing doors open to see if anyone occupied any of the rooms, a task they were said to have found easy as the doors were made of weak wooden planks.
The armed men were close-ly followed by a man popularly known in the area as Baba White. Fortunately for them, they found a boy, Oluwaseun Awoyemi, reclining on a mat in one of the rooms. Without asking further questions and caring little if he was the one they were seeking, they went for him, held him by his trousers, dragged him out of the room and dealt him blows perhaps, as he had never received in his entire 18-year of existence.
The band of four armed men and one unarmed man were not alone. Now, with them were two elderly women, one in her late seventies; the other in her early sixties, and one heavily pregnant young woman who were all pleading with them. But their pleas counted for nothing.
Eye witness accounts maintained that they insisted Seun must follow them to the ‘station’ for a reason they refused to disclose.
According to the accounts, the boy was able to wrest himself free from their grips after a while and ran into another room but was followed by one of the two elderly women who, following the refusal of the policemen to listen to their pleas, now turned to him appealing that he should follow them (police) with assurance that they would meet him at the police station.
But, before Seun consented to the appeal, guns rang from two sources: one from the entrance to the room and another from the window. The boy, now riddled with bullets, fell, soaked in his own blood; the other woman who was with him was shot in her two hands. She came out shouting ‘they have shot us.’ Where she was coming from now laid the corpse of the boy that would not need to go to the station again: Seun was dead.
How it all started
At about 9am earlier that day, according to Seun’s grandmother, Mrs. Abigael Awoyemi, the man called Baba White had come to their house, seeking to know who had beaten his son and after some threats, a boy called Taiye confessed to have done it. “Although, we appealed to him, he still gave that boy some slaps to satisfy himself,” Mrs. Awoyemi said.
She spoke further: “We all thought it had ended there. Surprisingly, about two hours later, he appeared with the police who looked fearful, pointing guns everywhere and forcing doors open. My son just finished eating and lying down in his room there. They went in, held him by his trousers and dragged him out.
“We even asked Baba White whether Seun was the one that beat his son, he did not reply me till now. He was watching the whole scene. And I appealed to the boy to follow them (the police). My son refused. Suddenly, he freed himself and ran into another room. I followed him inside the room, begging that he should follow them. Surprisingly, they followed him. My sister was the one who had gone inside with my son into the room earlier, saying he should follow them.
“Not long after they were inside, and while my sister was still beg-ging Seun, we heard the gunshots. My sister ran out, showing her hands where they shot her. I rushed inside and met my son, lying in the pool of his blood. I started crying: ‘they have killed my son, they have killed my son.’
“Immediately they shot him, they left. Four of them and just a few minutes later, they came back, this time around, they numbered about six. I was still with him, crying. This was a boy I have been nursing since he was one and a half years. He never hurt anyone. His father is my first son. When they came back, they carried him away and we later learned he was taken to the State Police Command.”
A statement by the police later confirmed that Seun’s corpse had been deposited at the mortuary of the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital. The Police Public Relations Officer, Victor Babayemi said investigation was ongoing and no arrest has been made.
Why was
Seun killed?
Residents of the area, especially neighbours could not adduce any reason why anyone let alone the police would kill Seun. According to some of them, the boy was apparently killed by the police for “no just cause.”
One neighbour told The Nation that: “Seun was a model child in this area. He was humble, obedient and hardworking. When he did not want to school again, he stopped and started learning bricklaying.
“Apart from that, there is no job he was not doing. See all the Igbo people selling on the road, Seun would go there and help them offload their goods. Call him any time he was there, easy going. Tell him to borrow you some money, he would always give you. He would go for bricklaying in the morning and in the evening when you expect him to rest, he would join other boys to offload trucks out there. That was his life.
Other victims of
the development
There were other victims of the attack according to one Mr. Peter Olaseinde. He said a 15-year-old boy popularly called Small, who also lived in the area was equally beaten and brutalised, after which they arrested him.
“Small was also arrested too. They hit him on the head with the butt of their gun. Blood was coming out of his head. Yet, they arrested him. He is now in police station. They took him to the police headquarters.
Another victim was the heavily pregnant Fatima, who was among those who pleaded for mercies from the invading band. The incident left her traumatised leading to her having a miscarriage and lying critically ill at the hospital.
She managed to speak with The Nation: “Soon after the ordeal, around 2pm that day, the children started struggling inside and I was rushed to the hospital. When the doctor and the nurses saw that I was dying they forced me to have the children. But one was already dead.
Supporting Fatima, a nurse at the hospital confirmed, “If the delivery was not induced, the second child and Fatima would have died as well. Fatima said one of the attackers pushed her.”
Seun’s wife just got pregnant
The Nation learnt that Seun, whose wife Oyewole Opeyemi is pregnant had been preparing for the arrival of the baby who he had boasted would be a male. Unfortunately, he would never see the baby. Opeyemi said her husband had suggested that the two of them relocate to Lagos, promising to take care of her. “I saw him last in the night of Wednesday. He said we should be going to Ekon in Kwara State or Lagos. He was from Ekon. I said I won’t go with him as I don’t have any one there. He gave me N170 being the only money on him. I am pregnant for him now. Where is the father, in the mortuary,” Opeye-mi said.
Tales of similar brutalities by the police
Azeez Alese, who claimed to have been brutalised alongside his wife and a friend said “even those alive don’t get justice let alone the dead. Alese, who lives in the same area recalled that eight mobile police officers came to arrest him with his wife and a friend on October 15, 2013, while he was eating in his room on Sallah Day last year.
“I was not around when some boys fought. I came round to eat in the afternoon. They (the police) came numbering eight. They were all mobile police officers. They fired tear gas into our house and arrested me and my friend, Gbenga Alese. They never took me to court. They also arrested my wife, Busayo. We spent 36 days in the cell. When they liked, they released me.
The interventions in the case
The Nation learnt that the state government has ordered investigation into the incident, insisting that the culprits must be brought to justice. Also, the Legal Aid Council had also reportedly intervened to ensure adequate legal support was given to the family should the case be taken to court.
But the father of the slain teenager, Dele Adebayo Awoyemi, had lost all hope of getting justice for his son, saying, “What did they say my son did. Was he caught robbing on the highway? Just last month, I wanted to take him to my farm. But, I thought my mother would need him. He was not even up to two years when she (the mother) took charge of his upkeep. Mama’s efforts have gone to waste.
Any possibility that the culprits, in the latest extra-judicial killing, will be caught and made to face justice? Azeez Alese said, “such things do not happen in Nigeria. You will hear that the police have done this, they have done that, but that will be all. Remember, they shot and killed a girl in Orin, in 2011 and in 2012, they killed another boy in Ilupeju. Have you heard of developments in respect of those cases again, impossible?”
