How I Lost My Two Months Pregnancy In SARS Custody – School Teacher
#EndSARS: How I Lost Two Front Teeth - 60-Year-Old Victim
Nzube Obiechina, an alleged sufferer of police brutality in Lagos, has told the Lagos Judicial Panel how she was tortured with the aid of operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and lost months pregnancy inside the method.
“I became months pregnant, they had been beating me, I became urinating on my material, they said they may kill me.
“They took me to the ‘shrine’, hang me there, beat me, slap me, they said they are going to force the toddler out of me and I will die there,” she advised the panel on Saturday.
Mrs Obiechina stated she turned into put in an open-cell in which she become overwhelmed through rain and scorched via sunshine for a week, with no food to eat or water to drink.
The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Enquiry and Restitution for Victims of SARS associated abuses and other topics Saturday heard the chilling details of how the now dissolved police unit allegedly tortured a pregnant teacher and her husband for 22 days, until she misplaced her baby.
Ogechukwu Obiechina and his wife Ndubuisi told the panel that the incident came about in June 2017 after the operatives falsely labelled her a thief and kidnapper.
Mrs Ndubuisi, who spoke for the couple, said she become two months pregnant on the time, however that during beatings, the guys threatened to “force the child out of me”.
She testified that following in addition trauma from the torture SARS operatives meted out on her husband throughout his second arrest in October 2017, she misplaced any other being pregnant.
She said men of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) additionally stole her husband’s N50,000 and pressured them to cough up N400,000 as bail, earlier than they have been freed.
She advised the panel that the couple in 2017 sued the Police at the Federal High Court in Lagos and gained.
Justice Mohammed Idris ordered the Police to pay them N2million as compensation.
They additionally gained on the Court of Appeal in Lagos in 2020 however the Police refused to conform with the judgment.
Mrs Ndubuisi diagnosed a number of her torturers as “Phillip Rilwan, Christian and Haruna Idowu,” all policemen.
Panel chair, Judge emeritus Doris Okuwobi, adjourned sitting till November 10, to present the mentioned operatives an possibility to seem and respond to the allegations.
The Obiechinas’ testimony turned into the primary of four petitions for the 0.33 day of sitting because the Lagos State Government installation the nine-member panel on October 15, following weeks of near national #EndSARS protests.
The different petitioners are: Olusegun Openiyi; Francis Idum (deceased) and Olajide Fowotade. The fourth petition didn’t pass on.
Mrs Ndubuisi, a private school instructor, said on June 1, she received a textual content message from an unknown wide variety that she had a parcel from DHL. A caller the use of special numbers requested for her home or workplace deal with and he or she gave him her faculty deal with upon her husband’s advice.
It become tomorrow, June 2, 2017, that her ordeal began.
She stated the men arrived at her college in a black Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV).
Mrs Ndubuisi said: “I saw a black jeep with huge men interior it. One of them was in a DHL uniform.
“Immediately, they approached me, they began beating me. They stated I have to enter inside. They said I turned into a thief, an armed robber. The one within the DHL uniform removed it. My HM (Headmistress) become peeping at us. I said allow me go and inform her. They said no.”
The petitioner said she had a five-yr-old son at the school, but they didn’t care.
” I stated my child is there, they said no, that I ought to comply with them, that my kid might die there. My HM got here to the gate; they pointed a gun at me. She requested what turned into taking place.
They stated ‘This woman is a thief, a kidnapper. She need to observe us and move. They stated they were Police, SARS.”
They driven me inside the vehicle and moved. The men were slapping, beating me. I changed into months pregnant. I started vomiting. That’s after they observed out I became pregnant. But they saved torturing me. I advised them I did not recognize the suspect.
“They took me to their office at Ikeja. They took me to a shrine. They hanged me, beat me. They stated they would force my baby out of me. They stated I need to produce the person or die there,” Mrs Obiechina stated.
The witness testified in addition that her husband have been searching for her at one of a kind Police stations in Lagos. When he in the end found her, he turned into also arrested and tortured.
She continued: “Immediately they saw him, they began beating him. They positioned a tyre on his head, and stated they might burn him alive. They started interrogating him, beat him with gun butt, hit him on the pinnacle with a stone.
“During the thrashing, I urinated on my garments; they stated my being pregnant changed into no longer my husband’s, that I must carry the man who impregnated me.”
She instructed the panel that they were put in special cells.
“…..I instructed them I had a five yr-old son in faculty. They stated ‘let him die there,” the petitioner said, adding that they sooner or later allowed her and her husband to name people to take care of their son.
“My husband was in Cell 1, I become in Cell 2. It turned into a excessive open room. Rain and sun beat us.”
They had been finally launched upon price of N250,000 and N150,000 “bail”, but her husband become re-arrested in October equal 12 months, throughout which she misplaced another pregnancy because of the sparkling torture and trauma.
She stated: “While we have been making ready for church on a Sunday, Philip Rilwan, Haruna and different SARS operatives intruded into our house.
“I referred to as our lawyer and I also referred to as Christian when they were going. ‘You understand first time I misplaced my toddler. Now I’m pregnant and my health practitioner stated I don’t want any pressure. Tell me where you take my husband to.’
“Christian replied, ‘Oga stated he desires to see him.’ I asked who's Oga? And he said Philip and that the order is from Abba Kyari.
“They beat my husband, driven him out in boxers. I turned into begging them, they stated no. They took him away.”
She said due to the “emotional trauma” she lost her 2nd being pregnant.
The panel chair admitted the 2 judgments as exhibits.
“Judgement in attraction CA/L/178 of 2018 COP and others towards Mr Obiechina and some other dated March 20, 2020, is hereby admitted and marked as Exhibit B,” Justice Okuwobi said.
The 2d petitioner, Mr Fowotade, wept earlier than narrating how he changed into allegedly assaulted with the aid of simple garments operative of the Ketu Division of the Police in Lagos.
The policeman allegedly accused him of trying to knock them down along with his car.
He instructed the panel that they removed two of his teeth earlier than dragging him to their station.
The motorcycle using policemen have been stated to have accused him of trying to run them over when he all at once applied the brakes to avoid hitting a tricycle that veered off its lane.
One of them recognized as Ayo was said to have head-butted the contractor at the mouth, knocking off two the front teeth.
He testified that he was also thoroughly crushed up at the station, that even the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) became alarmed and reprimanded the policemen, whilst he observed out.
Fowotade stated weeks after, he become now not himself and that he had spent hundreds of thousands looking to repair his tooth and leg.
“How can someone simply beat me up and nothing happened?”, he stated.
When the panel asked him what he desired, Fowotade stated: “I want Justice”, including that about N2million or N3miillion could assist as reimbursement.
The panel adjourned further complaints in all of the petitions until November 10.
The panel is made from the Chairman Justice Doris Okuwobi (Rtd); Mr Ebun Adegboruwa (SAN); Mr Taiwo Lakanu, a retired Deputy Inspector-General of Police and a founding member of SARS.
Other panelists are Mrs Oluwatoyin Odusanya, Director, Lagos State Directorate of Citizen’s Rights and Ms Patience Udoh, a consultant of the civil society businesses Mr Segun Awosanya (segalink) a human rights activist, Rinu Oduala, Temitope Majekodunmi and Mr Lucas Koyejo.
The panel sits from 10am to 4pm for six months. The precise sitting days are Tuesday, Friday and Saturday at the Lagos Court of Arbitration, No 1A, Remi Oluwode Street, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos.
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