The fate of 17-year-old boy detained by the police for 8 months is unknown

The fate of a 17-year-old boy, Aliu Oladeni, who was clamped in detention by the Igando Police Station since June 2014, has remained unknown.

His relatives said the police at the division, who had been dribbling the family, collected over N160, 000 to release him on bail, but had yet to do so.

The victim’s relatives said they believed he was still alive, despite the side remarks by some people around the station that he might have been killed by the police.

Aliu was detained at the station as an accomplice in a robbery operation, after the prime suspect, identified as Sodiq, took a mob to his house.   The mob did not meet him at home but vandalised some of the family’s property before leaving with a warning to be back.

Aliu’s mother, Bola Oladeni, said she was assisting a neighbour, who was having a wedding in the adjoining street, when she learnt there was commotion in her house.

She said, “It was on Sunday morning, June 22. Some people came to our house with sticks and cutlasses. I was not around, but as soon as I got the information, I went home. They had broken our door and damaged the ceilings. They said they were looking for Aliu.

“They said they caught one of his friends, Sodiq, who was involved in a robbery operation the previous night, and he said he was one of his accomplices.

“We told them Aliu was not around, and they promised to be back.”

She said Aliu had gone to a viewing centre to see a football match the previous night and had slept in the place.

It was learnt that while the mob left the house for the Igando Police Division, Aliu’s siblings went to the viewing centre and took Aliu to the station.  This  decision was to avert the return of the mob to the house.

Aliu’s sister, Fatimoh, said the family met the station swelling with crowd, which included Sodiq and the complainant, a woman, who lived in Ikotun.

They were said to be making their statements on the incident.

She said, “My father asked to see the woman whose house was burgled and he begged the police if he could ask the woman a question. The Investigating Police Officer said he could.

“He asked the complainant if he spotted Aliu during the incident, and she said no. She said there were three robbers who came to her house, and they were not masked, so she saw their faces clearly. She said it was while they were about escaping that Sodiq was caught.

“It was after the mob had tortured him that they asked him to take them round to the houses of his friends. And that was how he brought them to our house.

“But the policemen at the station attacked my father and he fell down. They said he should stop teaching them their job.”

Aliu’s elder brother, Murtala, a footballer, explained that he used to know Sodiq as Aliu’s friend, until he left the area about a year ago.

“He left this area about a year ago and was separated from my brother. After he finished secondary school, Aliu went to learn how to make bags. After he was done, he ventured into screen printing and was preparing for his graduation when the incident happened.

“When the mob brought Sodiq that day, I asked him where he had been for more than one year, and he didn’t say anything. When we got to the police station, and people asked him if it was Aliu or not, he still didn’t say a word,” he said.

The police, however, visited Aliu’s house the same day and after ransacking the house, they didn’t find any incriminating material.  They were said to have demanded the payment of N80,000 for his bail.

Aliu’s sister said, “After we paid the money, the police told us they could not remove his name from a list they had prepared because they were transferring the matter to the state Special Anti-Robbery Squad.

“A man, who lives in our house, then took my father to the then Igando Divisional Police Officer, CSP Benjamin Osuji, and after much appeal, we pay another N80,000.

“The neighbour, Mr. Charles, called the DPO in our house and at a point in their conversation, they switched to Ibo language. We didn’t understand their conversation, but he always told us the DPO was working on the release of my brother.”  But after the payment, the policemen at the station started ignoring telephone calls from the family.

The family said lawyers hired to help in the release of Aliu, informed them the police had told them to forget about the case.

Aliu’s father, Sunday Oladeni, a mechanic, said an inspector from the Igando Station told the family that Aliu might never be seen again.

He said, “The inspector told me we should pray because I might never see my son again, saying his case had been taken to Federal SARS in Abuja. We have spent so much without any result.

“Let them allow us see him and if he has done anything bad, let them take the matter to court.”

The Police Public Relations Officer, Kenneth Nwosu, said the former DPO of Igando Police Station, Osuji, denied collecting any money from Aliu’s family.

He said, “It is an armed robbery case. You said the boy was 17 years, but I have been told he is not 17. I have also spoken with the DPO in question and he denied taking money from the family. The matter has been transferred from the station.”

When asked on Monday where the suspect was transferred to, Nwosu said he had not been able to ascertain it, but that he would try and get that information.