Rising cases of suspects’ escape from the police custody across the country has a linkage with electricity outage and negligence, reports KUNLE AKINRINADE.
THE time was 1:50 a.m on October 18, 2016. A cacophony of voices had roused 59-year-old Lukman Abagun from his sleep. Unknown to him, some sons from hell had broken into his home on Adeola Street in Ayobo-Ipaja Local Council Development Area of Lagos State. The suspected robbers gained entrance into the house through the kitchen and grabbed one of his daughters, Aminat, who was awake at the time.
After giving the girl the beating of her life, the gang asked Aminat to lead them to her father’s bedroom. They threatened to kill her should Abagun refuse to come out of his bedroom. After waiting for him to step out of his bedroom to no avail, the robbers forced their way into his bedroom and pounced on the retired staff of the Federal Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism with machetes, and accused him of apprehending one of them during a robbery operation in the community, before collecting two mobile phones belonging to him and his daughter. The robbers ran away when Abagun’s wife, Sofiyat, and daughter screamed for help.
Abagun was found unconscious in a pool of blood when neighbours moved into his apartment to rescue him. The fleeing hoodlums promised to return to kill Abagun. The robbers left some materials, including a pair of canvas and clothes, in Abagun’s compound as they fled.
Abagun, who bled profusely, was rushed to Akanbi Hospital in Ayobo, where doctors battled to stabilise him. For two days, he could not open his eyes as a result of the injury inflicted on him by the robbers.
It turned out that the leader of the gang, John Solomon Olugbemi, had been arrested about two months earlier by Abagun and handed over to the Ayobo Police Division, but he was said to have mysteriously escaped from custody while the police promised to re-arrest him.
As the story goes, Olugbemi had attempted to scale a perimeter fence when he was being chased by residents for leading his gang to rob a house in the neighbourhood on August 26, 2016
The suspect was handed over to the police but he allegedly escaped from the police custody the following day. Bent on making Abagun pay for apprehending him, he led his gang to attack Abagun.
In November 2016, Olugbemi again led his gang to rob residents of Itele, a community in Ogun State, which shares boundary with Ayobo area of Lagos State. He was however arrested by the operatives of the Itele Police Division.
Like Olugbemi, a suspect, Sunday Olawale, who allegedly attacked a 72-year-old, Olufemi Oladipo Fayiga, in the Ikotun area of Lagos State, was said to have escaped from the police custody shortly after he was arrested by men of the Rapid Responsible Squad (RRS).
Olawale was said to have attacked Pa Fayiga at his residence on 3, Lawal Street, Ikotun, following a controversial disconnection of electricity supply to his father’s house on the same street. The suspect was taken to Ikotun Police Division by RRS operatives and handed over to the Divisional Crime Officer (DCO) of the station.
But men of the station claimed the suspect escaped through the station’s back door, shortly after he was interrogated on Wednesday December 7, 2016.
A senior officer at the station, who spoke anonymously to The Nation, said the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) handling the case committed professional blunder leading to the suspect’s escape.
Pa Fayiga said: “He struggled with the RRS operatives and even injured himself in the process. However, he was taken to Ikotun Police Station and we were at the station for about four hours during which he was taken into a room for interrogation at nightfall. Then there was a blackout and while we were waiting at the front desk of the station, one Sergeant Osahon told us that the suspect had escaped through the back of the station into the nearby secretariat of Igando/ Ikotun Local Council Development Area and could not be re-arrested.”
The mysterious escape of suspects from police custody is not limited to Lagos. In Akwa Ibom State, a suspected robber identified simply as Frank, was said to have escaped from Oruk Anam Police Division on August 28, 2017, where he was detained shortly after he was reportedly arrested during a robbery at St. Patrick Quasi Catholic Parish, Obio Ndot, in the Oruk Anam Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. He allegedly bolted through the roof of the police cell.
The suspect and his boys who had been terrorising Oruk Anam and other communities had earlier allegedly attacked the church and carted away the money realised during its harvest service.
After the initial attack, the church beefed up its security leading to the arrest of the suspect when he again attacked the church at midnight while his boys escaped. He was almost lynched by a mob, but the church leaders intervened and handed him over to the police. However, he allegedly mysteriously escaped from police custody.
A few weeks ago, the police in Rivers State declared a manhunt for 23-year-old Ifeanyi Dike, who escaped from the custody of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) on Saturday August 19, 2017, few hours after he was arrested for the alleged ritual killing of an eight-year-old girl in Port Harcourt.
Dike was arrested by members of a vigilance group with a bag containing the mutilated body of the little girl, Chikamso Victory, while he was attempting to dispose of it after he allegedly cut off the vagina, fingers, breasts, and tongue.
He was said to have raped the girl before killing her. His escape led to the sack and arraignment of a police sergeant investigating the ritual murder, Johnbosco Okoroeze.
The suspect was however re-arrested 19 days after he escaped from the police custody in Jos, Plateau State.
Power outage, negligence aid suspects’ escape
Nearly all the cases share the same line of suspects’ escape occasioned by sudden power outage and negligence on the part of police interrogators. In the case of Olugbemi, it was reported that he seized the moment to bolt out of the station after a blackout occurred midway into his interrogation. With the blackout, the officer handling his interrogation was said to have left him in an unsecure dingy room to fetch a lamp. His exit provided opportunity for Olugbemi to run out of the station, jump over the fence and escape.
Worse still, the development was not brought to the attention of the state police command until The Nation called the then police spokesperson, Ms Dolapo Badmus, following which the DPO of the station was removed.
It was the same story in the case of Olawale, who also bolted into thin air after electricity supply to the station went off. The darkness provided a shield for him to escape through a fence bordering the Igando-Ikotun Local Council Development Area, while the Investigating Police Officer identified simply as Seargent Osahon left him to look for a rechargeable lamp at the front desk and could not be rearrested.
When The Nation visited the station, the then new DCO who refused to disclose his name said he had just been redeployed to the station, adding that the incident happened before his redeployment.
The then police spokesperson, Dolapo Badmos, however said the case was that of malicious damage and that efforts were being made to re-arrest the suspect.
Following the national outrage which trailed Dike’s escape from the custody of SCID in Port Harcourt, the bereaved father of his victim, Ernest Nmezuwuba, reportedly said that the darkness which pervaded the police formation after a power outage led to the suspect’s escape.
“We were there with the suspect in handcuffs. When we got to the state CID, there was no light in the entire State CID. I wrote my statement with candle; imagine a whole state CID without light. Then Johnbosco removed the handcuffs from the suspect’s hands for him (suspect) to write his statement.
“At a point, the boy (Dike) said he was thirsty and Johnbosco said I should buy pure water for him and I asked him (‘John, are you crazy? Is something wrong with you? Why would you ask me to buy water for a person that killed my daughter? Why would I buy water for a ritualist?’ And I told Johnbosco that it was none of my business,” Nmezuwuba said.
“Some policemen were at the gate with guns while we were at the charge room writing statement. After we finished writing our statements, the IPO was asked to go and put the suspect in the cell. The suspect was not handcuffed at that time.
“They did not walk up to a pole when I heard ‘hold am, hold am; he has escaped’. Whether he jumped the fence or not, I cannot say because the entire place was dark; it was between 7.30 and 8 p.m. (Saturday night). I now told Johnbosco that you know what you are doing.
“They (policemen) came out with torchlight and checked under the cars parked there. Then, I saw the DCP, I mean the Deputy Commissioner of Police and he said; what nonsense is this? He then asked after Johnbosco and he was told he (Johnbosco) was inside. The DCP then said that they should handcuff both his hands and legs,” he added.
Speaking shortly after he was rearrested, Dike reportedly said he took advantage of the blackout and darkness in the premises of SCID to bolt away, adding that nobody knew when he sneaked out.
“I escaped to Jos. Having stayed for several days without food and due to the injuries I sustained, I was unable to get food to eat. So due to the hunger, I decided to source for food and that was where I was caught and handed over to the Police.”
Poor funding
The Nigeria Police Force is grossly underfunded with personnel lacking basic working tools to effectively checkmate criminals and combat crimes. The result of this is poor result in containing crimes and the use of dysfunctional equipment in crime combat. Only recently, the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris revealed that a sum of N1.13 trillion was needed annually for the Police to function effectively.
Idris gave the figures on July 11, 2017 at a public hearing by the House of Representatives on a “Bill for an Act to establish the Nigeria Police Reform Trust Fund and for other related matters.” He noted that poor funding has negatively affected the turnout of police personnel.
According to him, the figure excludes funds for major capital projects such as arms and ammunition, purchase of new vehicles and other technological needs of the force, while N26.9 billion is needed to fuel and maintain 14,306 police vehicles and motorcycles and N14.5billion is required annually to provide adequate and appropriate uniforms and accoutrements for the personnel.
He said: “N700 billion is needed to rehabilitate barracks, police stations and build new ones. For the Force to also do proper investigation and prosecution of law offenders, over N200 billion is required. What is required to run the force, excluding major capital projects like arms and ammunition, purchase of new vehicles, gun boats, helicopters and other technological needs is conservatively put at N14.132,532,142,242.
“In 2017 budget, only N36.1billion was allocated to the Police for both capital and overhead costs. This is a far cry from the N1.13 trillion conservatively estimated. This difference is alarming and has sounded the loud trumpet that the regular budgetary allocation to run the Police is sharply inadequate and requires urgent measure to address, if the Force must be effective and responsive to the security needs of Nigerians in a complex and dynamic policing space. The Police Trust Fund is the answer because it would provide alternative and regular funding for the police.”
Experts speak
A security consultant and retired police officer, Adewale Adegbite, said cases of suspects’ escape from police custody are a sad commentary on policing in the country.
“We have always been speaking about the bleeding infrastructure and lack of basic amenities across the police formations in the country. The effect of incessant power outage has robbed Nigerian of adequate policing and police authorities should do something about it.
“As a remedy, there should be provision of alternative source of power supply and the only solution is the provision of power generators to light up police divisions and operational premises of special police outfits in the country. This would enable officers to monitor movement of visitors and suspects at the stations.”
Adegbite also noted that negligence responsible for the escape of suspects from police custody was a result of unprofessional conduct of policemen handling the cases.
“How can a policeman leave suspects uncuffed at nightfall when there is power outage? This shows that professional tact was missing and such officers should be appropriately punished. The suspects should have been cuffed and moved to a safer and fortified room to forestall their escape. Not doing so amounts to negligence on the part of officers in charge of the cases.”
While calling on the authorities to ensure adequate funding of the Force, the Managing Director of Admark Security Ltd, Ikeja, Nicholas Aniekwe, urged the Federal Government to retrain police operatives on modern investigative tools and techniques.
He said constant training on emerging trends in policing would fortify officers in handling sensitive cases and interrogation of suspects in police custody and prevent suspects from bolting from custody.
“The rising cases of suspects escaping from police custody underscore the importance of adequate funding of the Force. Electricity is as important to crime combat as it is to the wellbeing of people in the society and economic growth of the nation. It is appalling to note that a lot of police stations rely on candle sticks with all its dangerous consequences to light up stations in the night whenever there is power outage.
“The consequence of this is what we are witnessing in terms of embarrassing escape of suspects from police custody. Darkness offers a veritable platform for criminals and suspects to hatch their illegal freedom or escape, hence, the Federal Government and police authorities should provide alternative sources of power for police divisions spread across the country either through generators or electricity inverters.
“Police personnel should also apply circumspection when interrogating criminals at nightfall. The interrogation room should be well protected and in the event that there is absence of a well secured room, suspects should be guarded by two or more officers pending the time improvised light such as lantern or candle would be put in place.”
