A 42-year-old woman, Mrs. Sola Aregbesola, who resides in Ilawe-Ekiti, is now crying for justice over alleged beating she received inside a police station in the community.
The mother of five claimed that she has lost one of her eyes as a result of the alleged brutality she suffered in the hands of men of Mushin Police Station, who she also accused of almost stripping her naked while in custody.
The woman alleged that she was arrested and detained at the station on the order of a woman she identified as her husband’s mistress.
According to her, she was arrested at her medicine shop on May 5 by policemen brought by her rival who insisted that she must leave the community.
The case has since been taken up by the Ekiti State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development who are working to ensure that Mrs. Aregbesola gets justice.
Mrs. Aregbesola said: “My husband’s mistress and her mother came to visit my shop on Thursday, May 5 at about 4pm. They asked me to leave the community for them, so she can have my husband for herself only.
“One of my daughters, who was angered by their effrontery, confronted them but I calmed her down and asked her to steer clear of the matter.But before they left, they threatened to deal with me in such a way I would never forget but I took their threat with a pinch of salt. They left and came back to arrest me with some policemen from Mushin Police Post in Ilawe-Ekiti.
“The policeman who followed them said I was wanted at the station to tell my side of the story. He said the women had alleged that I came to their house to assault them. When we got to the station, my husband’s mistress, her mother and some of her relatives were already there and they were raining curses at me.
“It took about an hour before the police officer in charge of the case asked me to explain myself and I told him all that had happened earlier at my shop. I told them I didn’t assault anybody and urged the police to investigate the matter. But the police officer ordered his subordinates to detain me and boasted that he would make sure that I spend four days in detention before any investigation is carried out.
“When it was about 8 pm that day, I began to plead with the police officer that he should allow my people to secure my bail because I’m an asthma patient and that I also have ulcer. I even begged him to allow me call one of my children so they could bring my drugs for me. But while I was about to dial my son’s number on my cell phone, the officer snatched my phone and threw it away.
“He then demanded for N30,000 as a bribe for him to release me and boasted that he could kill me in the detention and no one would question him. He said he is an employee of the Federal Government and not of the state government and that the only family he regards in Ilawe-Ekiti is the family of the people who reported to him that I assaulted them.
“When it was around 9pm, I went to kneel down before him and begged him to allow me call my child who was in my shop so she could bring the money I was having inside the shop for him.
“He asked if the money was up to N30,000 and I said it would not be up to that and that the money was meant for one of my children’s examination fee. I begged him to accept the money and let me go but he said he would not accept it unless it was up to N30,000.
“I continued to beg him to collect the money and he got angry at a point and slapped me. He then hit me with his shoes and later ordered his junior officers to chain me to one of the tables in the office before I was later dragged into the cell.
“They tore my clothes and slapped me severally. While I was being assaulted by the policemen, my son who had gone to see a lawyer came to the police station. He told the senior police officer that a lawyer who had taken up my case wanted to speak to him on phone and request that I be granted bail so that he (the lawyer) could bring me back to the station the next morning.
“Instead of taking the phone from my son, the senior police officer ordered his junior officer to deal with my son and they beat him also and even chained him. The evidence of all this was recorded on that my son’s phone.
“While all this was happening, God brought a very senior police officer from Igbara-Odo to the station. I can’t recall his name but he told me he was representing Igbara-Odo Police Station. He had gone to the station to see the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) who was not around then.
“It was that senior officer who, on seeing me drenched in my own blood, asked the officers at the police station if I was an armed robber that made them treat me so badly, and they told him about the allegation levelled against me.
“It was that time the senior officer, who is not a Yoruba man, called the station’s DPO and informed him about the ill-treatment his men were giving me. The DPO then demanded to speak with me on phone and I explained all that happened. That made the DPO to order his junior officers to release me, saying that I should report at the station the next day.
“The next day, the DPO called all of us and in a very good and humane way settled the matter. I didn’t pay any money. I just thank God that the senior officer, who is not a Yoruba man, got to the station on time, the officers would have finished me at the station. Now, I’ve lost my left eye to the assault from the policemen at Mushin Police Station in Ilawe-Ekiti and the aggrieved woman”.
Ekiti State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs. Olayinka Ogundayomi vowed that the ministry will ensure justice for Mrs. Aregbesola.
The commissioner said: “It would be an unfortunate development if indeed it is true that the policemen assaulted this woman like this. There are laws against such alleged crimes and the perpetrators cannot go unpunished.
“We have contacted the appropriate quarters and once our investigations confirmed her allegations. We will ensure that with the help of the law, we deal with the perpetrators of this alleged inhuman act to a woman.
“We also use this medium to appeal to our women to end the culture of silence where they keep quiet after being assaulted like this. They will get protection and justice if they cry out and report to us.”
But the state spokesman, Mr. Alberto Adeyemi, denied the allegation of assault levelled against the junior police officers at Mushin Police Station in Ilawe-Ekiti.
Adeyemi said: “The woman (Aregbesola) couldn’t have said the truth. We investigated the matter and what we gathered from the Mushin Police Station in Ilawe-Ekiti is that Mrs. Aregbesola allegedly went to assault a woman said to be a mistress of her husband and the woman’s mother and that led to some free-for-all or street fight.
“She got seriously injured in the ensuing crisis and later reported the matter to the Mushin Police Station where she was attended to. We can’t now understand how she would then take on the police and alleged that she was assaulted by us when indeed it was the people she fought who actually assaulted her.
“We challenge her to prove her allegation because this is what almost everyone in Ekiti do; they just like to blackmail the police when a case turns against them.”
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