Police tortured, killed my father, says 10-year-old

Police tortured, killed my father, says 10-year-old

A 10-year-old boy, Jonathan Adewuyi has accused policemen attached to the Ayinla Police Division in Agbado, Ogun State of torturing his father to death.
The incident occurred at the weekend at 4, Itoki Road, Itoki, where the boy lived with his father, Sina Adewuyi, 45, a bricklayer.
According to the boy, his father died at about 5am on Sunday from injuries he sustained after his was brutalised by some policemen who came to extort his master, Dona Okey.
Reliving the ordeal, the boy said after the policemen beat up his father for asking why they were in his compound around 4pm, they bundled him into their bus, took him away with them and he only returned at about 10pm.
He said: “I am an apprentice working with the man (Okey) and learning to sell spare parts. His shop is in the same compound where we live. My master told them (police) he had no money with him for now because he used to give them money before whenever they came.
“When my father came out from the house, he saw policemen and wanted to know what happened that police came to our compound. But they shouted on him and told him to leave the vicinity. He told them he lived in the compound, but they refused to listen and started beating him for having the guts to talk back at them.
“He tried to runaway from them, but they chased him, caught up with him, hit him with a gun butt and asked him to enter their bus, which he refused. They bundled him into the bus and took him away.
“He did not return till about 10pm and when he came back, he was in pains with marks of brutality on his body. He was complaining of headache and chest pain and so, we gave him painkillers but he vomited them.
“My mother said we will take him to the hospital in the morning since it was already late, but around 5am on Sunday, he died.”
Continuing, the boy said they went to the Sango Ota Area Command same
Sunday morning to complain, but they were asked to go back to the division and file complaint, which they did.
“Policemen came to our house, took photographs of my late father before he was taken to the mortuary. We were asked to return to the station on Monday, which I did with some of my father’s relatives.
“At the station, they brought out so many policemen and asked me to point the people who came to my place. I was able to identify two of them who were among those that beat my father and took him away,” he said.
Calling on the state governor Ibikunle Amosun, as well as the police high command to ensure justice for her late husband, the boy’s mother, Mrs. Tunrayo Adewuyi, 35, said the policemen have murdered the family’s breadwinner.
“He is the bread winner of the family. I am only a petty food stuff trader. I have six children. Four boys and two girls. Who will help me? I don’t have anybody. The government should come to my aid,” she sobbed.
The Area Commander of Sango Ota, Adegoke Fayoade, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) said the matter was being investigated.
He confirmed that two policemen were identified and have been transferred to the State police command in Abeokuta for further action.

By Precious Igbonwelundu, Nation Newspaper