Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps has provided an update on the police assault, brutality, and illegal detention of its personnel in Osun State Police Custody
According to a press release on Friday, 25th October 2024, signed by the Osun State Civil Defence Command PRO ASC Kehinde Adeleke, a disturbing incident of barbaric police brutality occurred on Tuesday, October 22, 2024, around 8 pm, at Elizabeth Estate in Osogbo, Osun State, when a group of individuals claiming to be police officers in “ANKARA ” cloth with only jackets on top, drove recklessly into the estate with a private sienna vehicle, entered the estate, which is secured by the personnel of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Osun State Command, to purportedly arrest a suspect.
The statement read, “The personnel of NSCDC on duty, as trained officers, requested means of identification, which the individuals who claimed to be policemen failed to provide. Instead, they resorted to intimidation. After they failed to identify themselves, they left the premises of the estate.
“The situation escalated the following day, Wednesday, October 23, 2024, when a group of police numbering about twenty (20) drove into the estate and descended on one NSCDC personnel, physically assaulting him and inflicting grievous bodily harm on him. The video of the incident is attached to the statement.
“The officer’s uniform was torn, he was brutalised beyond description, disarmed, handcuffed like a common criminal, and forcefully taken to Ataoja Division before being moved to the Police State Headquarters.
“Efforts to resolve the issue amicably were made by the Commandant of NSCDC, Osun State Command, Dr Michael Adaralewa, who raised a team of senior officers who visited the Police Headquarters. However, the police refused to release the detained NSCDC personnel. They concocted unfounded lies about the deflation of their vehicle tyres. When the team asked if the same vehicle was still at the scene, they said no, and then the questions we asked if any vulcaniser had fixed the tyres. “No” was the answer. The team also demanded that the vehicle was towed. The answer was also negative. The big question then is how did the vehicle that conveyed the policemen leave the incident scene.
“Unfortunately, despite assurances by the police team that immediately NSCDC confirmed the identity of the officer in their custody, he would be released, a confirmation letter was taken to police state headquarters, yet they never released him since Wednesday, 23rd October 2024. He was just released this afternoon, today Friday, the 25th, after he had been made to undergo more humiliating treatment at the hands of policemen on duty.
The Osun NSCDC boss, Michael Adaralewa, therefore, calls for a thorough investigation into the matter and brings perpetrators to book. “We demand there should be no sacred cow in the matter, and we are not going to allow the matter to be swept under the rug.”
