An Assistant Superintendent of
Police, Salawu Kazeem, has been arrested and detained by the Lagos State Police
Command for allegedly torturing a 21-year-old carpenter, Ganiyu Akinyemi, to
death in the Aboru area of Lagos State.
It was gathered that Kazeem was
attached to the Ogun State Police Command headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta,
Ogun State, but lived on Omifisoye Avenue, Ago Estate, Aboru was on Monday at
about 5pm, came to the deceased’s apartment on Victor Fagbemi Street, Aboru and
accused the carpenter of stealing three T-shirts in a house where the ASP
lived.
Punch learnt that the family members
were called on the telephone around 3am on Tuesday that he was admitted at the
Oke Odo General Hospital. He had reportedly sustained injuries on the knees,
hands and forehead.
When the family members got to the
hospital, they were said to have been met by one of the men who followed the
ASP to the house. They were also said to have been told by a doctor that Ganiyu
was dead.
The matter was thereafter reported
to the Oke Odo Police Division on Tuesday and the ASP and two of the men were
arrested, while two others escaped. Punch learnt that the ASP reportedly begged
the victim’s family at the police station, saying Ganiyu’s death was a mistake.
Speaking with Punch Metro, Ganiyu’s
father, Alhaji Akinyemi Ibrahim, who is also the chairman of the community
development association, said he released his son to the men because he saw the
ASP’s identity card and trusted that his son was being taken to a police
station.
Ibrahim added that he was shocked to
realize that Ganiyu was taken to the complainant’s house, where the ASP also
stayed, and was tortured till he became unconscious.
He said, “On that Monday, at about
5pm, I had just returned from a wedding in Kano State and I was very tired.
Five men came to the house and asked for Ganiyu. When he came out, they started
threatening him.
“I asked them to identify
themselves, and the ASP showed me his ID card, and said Ganiyu stole some
T-shirts when he came to fix kitchen cabinets in his house. He added that he
had come to arrest him.
“I did not have any problem with
that. I felt secured that it was a police officer who came to take him away,
and he had said he would be taking him to the nearest police station, which was
Oke Odo division. I told them that I would take a shower, rest a little and
meet them at the station.
“But to my surprise, around 7pm when
I wanted to go, the phone number that the ASP and his men gave us was switched
off. I sent one of my sons to check them at the police station.
“The boy, however, rushed back to
say Ganiyu was not taken to any station.
“It was around 3am on the following
day that we got a call that Ganiyu was hospitalised and was in a critical
condition at the Oke Odo General Hospital.
“When the hospital officials realised
that his knees, hands and forehead had been badly injured, they insisted that
they would only attend to him when they saw a family member; that was when the
ASP and his men were forced to call us on the telephone.”
Ganiyu’s elder sister, Saidat Ibrahim,
said, “Ganiyu had told us that the men gave him the T-shirts after he finished
working in the house. But when they wanted to frame him up, they said he stole
the shirts.”
The Police Public Relations Officer,
DSP Joe Offor, confirmed the ASP’s arrest, adding that the case would be
transferred to the State Department of Criminal Investigation, Yaba, for
further investigation.
He said, “The police cannot confirm
yet whether the ASP and the men killed the victim or not because investigation
is still ongoing. The police officer and two others have been arrested, and the
case will be transferred to the SDCI today (Wednesday), where detailed
investigation will be carried out.”
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