By Henry Oduah

Quadri Alabi, the boy who got attention when he stood in front of Peter Obi’s convoy in Lagos during a presidential campaign tour in the build-up to the 2023 general elections, has said he was made to clean faeces every day while detained in the Kirikiri correctional facility.

Alabi stated this during an interview on Monday on Channels TV which he attended alongside his lawyer, Inibehe Effiong.

“In the place that they put me in Kirikiri they used me like a person that did not have any family. From morning to 6 o’clock, I used to pack shit because I did not have money to give marshal,” he said.

Alabi was arrested and charged in connection with a violent street fight in the Amukoko area of Lagos earlier this year. However, Magistrate Adetola Olorunfemi later freed him following legal advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Dr. Babajide Martins.

The 17-year-old said he was at the entrance of his house when the police arrested him after being led by hoodlums.

“At the station, I was the youngest there. I was locked up with older men. They asked me what I did, and I said nothing. Before the arrest, the area boys had already taken my phone and the money in my pocket,” he said, adding that the hoodlums had been threatening him because they wanted a share of donations he got from the public when his photo from Mr Obi’s campaign tour went viral.

His lawyer Effiong alleged the police claimed Alabi was 18 years old in court documents.

Effiong said: “The police falsely claimed he was 18 in court documents. Why? Because if they had said he was 17, the court would have treated the matter differently—possibly not even remanding him in a regular prison. The magistrate noted this during the hearing but said the only information provided showed him as 18, so she had no reason to question it.”

The lawyer also claimed the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Amukoko Division subjected Alabi to an internal police trial, along with Inspector Odigbe Samuel and other officers. He described their actions as part of an “evil, sinister, oppressive, and corrupt scheme” to frame a teenager for armed robbery, instigated by rogue ‘area boys.’