By Dayo Johnson

It’s not an understatement if  the gruesome murder of three innocent persons: a 70 year old driver,   a 50 year old single mother and a 20 year old secondary school leaver, by Policemen, in the Ondo State Command, is described as “man’s inhumanity to man.”

Tongues are wagging in the metropolis   over incessant brutality to civilians by policemen in the last few months.
Of recent some aggrieved civilians almost lynched the policemen who descended on the 70year-old man in Akure metropolis.

Three persons have been gruesomely murdered within the last few months due to police brutality. They include Pa Gbenga Olomo,   Mrs. Ronke Adelugba and Oluwatobi Badmus.

While Pa Olomo   was report-edly tortured to death in police custody, Oluwatobi was locked inside a room in which the windows were allegedly shut and latched before he was tear-gassed and Mrs Adelugba met her untimely death during a heated argument with some policemen who hit her with the butt of an AK47 gun after which she slumped and died.

The three deaths occasioned by police alleged cruelty almost became a scandal that made the police to settle out of court by paying off the family of the 70 year old man when they threatened   court action.

Mobilisation of colleagues

South West Voice was informed that the 70 year old driver was beaten at a motor park for having the effontery to challenge a policeman who was in mufti for causing traffic jam within the Akure metropolis.

Not satisfied with the torture given to the driver, the policeman mobilsed his colleagues and invaded the park the second day and whisked the old man away to the Police Station.

He was reportedly beaten severely until he died in Police custody and the most painful aspect of it, according to his family,   was that after he died, he was taken to the State Specialist hospital and his corpse was tagged “ an armed robber”.

In the case of the 20 year old Oluwatobi, he was alleged to have stolen a BlackBerry telephone belonging to a prophet who reported the matter to his police friend and he  was arrested and locked up.

But while he was being tortured to confess committing the crime, the police detectives reportedly shut the windows and tear-gased the room he was locked in. After he was released, following the intervention of their family lawyer, Oluwatobi died few hours later,   foaming from his mouth.

The three policemen were later dismissed by the police authorities after facing   trial and have been  charged to court for manslaughter. The dismissed  policemen are: Awodeyi Adesola,30, Adedeji Adekunle,32, and Adepetu Olamilekan,27.

Police prosecuting witness, Dele Ogunyemi, told an Akure Chief Magistrate Court that the accused persons unlawfully killed Badmus and that his death occurred shortly after the deceased left police detention.

Ogunyemi said the deceased was arrested for allegedly stealing a BlackBerry mobile phone belonging to one Prophet Bisi Adejugbagbe and was tortured to death by the accused persons

South West Voice gathered that the  deceased just finished from a private Secondary School in Osun state and was seeking admission into the university before he met his untimely death.

It was gathered that the matter dragged long because the father of the deceased refused the offer from the Police command for out of court settlement.

Oluwatobi’s father, Raheem Akinfolayemi, has also refused to bury his son insisting that those who murdered him should first be made to face the music.

He has petitioned the Inspector General of Police (IG) and an investigative team raised later implicated the policemen and they have been summarily dismissed.

In the case of Pa Olomo,   it was gathered that the deceased died in the custody of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Oda Road after he was allegedly tortured. Members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, took to the street protesting his alleged death in police custody.

Police custody

South West Voice learnt that there was a traffic hold-up at the popular Arakale Road in Akure, the state capital and the deceased who was driving along the road discovered that another car has been used to block the road.

Pa Olomo was said to have alighted from his vehicle which had four passengers to find out what had been causing the delay, only to ask the driver of the vehicle why he crossed the road with his car thereby delaying other motorists.
Unknown to him that the man was a policeman, he was said to have been beaten and other drivers in a nearby park came to his rescue and he was let go.

The said policeman left the scene, only to return the second day with other Policemen to arrest some members of the drivers union they met in the park.

Six of the policemen later traced Pa Olomo to where he was fixing his tyre in readiness for the days work when he was swooped on and whisked away.

An unconfirmed source alleged that the policemen demanded   N150,000 for his bail but the drivers union   and family members said they could not raise the money.

After running around, the branch Chairman   identified as Muyiwa was able to raise N100,000 for his bail but on getting to the station, he was informed that the old man had died. The Police Commissioner, Isaac Eke, immediately ordered the arrest and detention of the policemen involved.

Female politician

Not wanting to be exposed, the police authorities invited both the family members of Pa Olomo and members of the driver’s union to a meeting, after they had threatened to go to court over his murder. The latest instance of the brutality was the murder of a female politician and single mother Ronke Aduloju who allegedly met her untimely death in the presence of her children.

Two out of ten inspectors that were linked with the death of the single mother have been suspended by the police command while   eight others were discharged and acquitted following the recommendation of a probe instituted by the state police command to investigate the alleged murder of the woman.

The suspended police Inspectors are Fabunmi Oladipupo and Haruna Idris.

South West Voice learnt that the investigation continues into the death of the woman. Reports had it that 10 policemen, who were pursuing a criminal who allegedly ran into the house of the deceased, came in  a white police Hilux van with registration number NPF 4236 B.

The suspected policemen were arrested after they reportedly caused the death of the female politician in Sijuade area of the state capital. Reports had it that the policemen invaded the shop of the woman politician who also operates a beer parlor located at No1 Akinyemi Street, off Ijoka Road, Sijuade in Akure in search of some criminals.

Eyewitness account

South West Voice gathered that the policemen who had earlier searched the bush around the shop of the woman politician for the alleged criminals later invaded her shop thinking they were hiding there.

She was said to have pleaded with the policemen who stormed her shop that she does not harbor criminals or Indian hemp smokers.
But the policemen, according to eyewitness account, insisted that her shop and house would be searched, following which an argument ensued.

The explanation of the deceased that only her sons were in her house was not taken by the policemen who insisted on searching both the shop and her house. Eyewitness account said that the woman said she would not allow the policemen to arrest her customers and her children without committing any crime.

While she was insisting that she would not allow them to make indiscriminate arrests, she was allegedly hit with the butt of AK47 gun by one of the policemen and she reportedly slumped and died. The deceased was the Woman Leader of the Accord Party in Ward 5, Akure South Local Government Area of the state.

Eyewitness accounts said that the policemen are in the habit of storming the area to make indiscriminate arrest of people especially during weekends and would later ask their relations to come and bail them with huge sums of money.