Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, President, Women Arise has called on the police authorities to ensure that their officer who recently tortured innocent citizens must face justice.She added “That the erring officer, now identified properly as Nasir Muhammed by the police must be helped with a psychiatric check. We need be sure that men recruited into our police force have no traces of mental disorders.
She added that “The victims must now be taken up by the police, properly treated and compensated. We are still in touch with the victims and they have still not been contacted by the police as of the time we make this note.
Her statement said in full “Women Arise is grieved by the increasing spate of horrible, terrible and awkward show of muscle by men in police uniform, lately.
We saw the clip of a disgraceful, disappointing show of power by an officer of the Nigerian Police Force, identified at first as Tafa Muhammed, against non-offending citizens.
We saw with pains, the deployment of State weapon in assaulting unarmed citizens.
We observed with despondency, the unwarranted oppression of innocent citizens as depicted in the horrible video, which also involved dipping a victim in muddy water.
At Women Arise, through diligence, we have located the victims and interviewed them for details of their torturous experience. From our interview of the victims, it is part of our findings that the victim had internal injury from the torture. We also found that the food seller, whose business policy of selling fish only to those that buy food from her, caused the policeman unwarranted frenzy, was further illegally detained, after the brutal torture.
We immediately contacted police authority at Federal level to ensure that the erring officer is taken up for mental check, and official status to be sure he is a true officer in the Nigeria Police Force, discipline and other further actions deemed necessary by the police to protect the victims and other citizens who may be potentially unsafe from continued exposure to the erring officer.
We were assured that the issue was being taken up by the police.
We obtained police statement thereafter, mentioning that the erring officer has now been arrested.
While we appreciate the swift action of the police in ensuring that the officer does not escape, as he was probably going to do, we make further demands as follows, on the police authority in interest of the public:
That the erring officer, now identified properly as Nasir Muhammed by the police must be helped with a psychiatric check. We need be sure that men recruited into our police force have no traces of mental disorders.
The victims must now be taken up by the police, properly treated and compensated. We are still in touch with the victims and they have still not been contacted by the police as of the time we make this note.
The erring police officer must be immediately dismissed. We must make good example of him to deter other officers who act with impunity, oppress citizens arbitrarily, or have disposition to do so.
We are resolved to mobilizing Nigerians to a protest against the police force on this singular act if the above demands are not met.
We enjoin all members of the Nigerian public to brace up for an impending mass protest should the police play family politics with this case.
Women Arise condemn strongly, the dastardly oppression of non-offending citizens with the police weapons, illegal detention of people to command undue fear and callous use of official power by the police, military and other agencies of Government.
Henceforth, it has now become unacceptable and offensive to us, for police officers to turn their official powers into what they personally use to intimidate, harass and torture the people they are recruited and paid to protect.
While we praise the role of the Nigeria Police Force in the arrest of some of the Ejigbo Pepper Sodomy perpetrators, which we are still working co operatively with the police on, we ask that this is not treated like a family affair. Violence is nothing to make family clique over.
We are following with keen interest, this case of police brutality as this is very important in setting a precedence on police-citizens relationship.
We thank the Nigerian Police Force in anticipation that the above demands are met, as well as other proper and necessary measures in this case. Only then shall we agree that police is indeed our friend.
