By Man Unlawfully Detained By Lagos Police Dies In Custody, Lawyers Demand Autopsy
On Sunday, May 2, men of the Nigerian Police Force, Lagos State Command arrested Omolola Ejioye around 8 p.m at Ladega in the Ikorodu area of the state.
His offense or reason for the arrest wasn’t stated. He was detained in Igbogbo Police Station till Tuesday morning, May 4, when his case was transferred to State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, Adekunle, Lagos State — after spending days in unlawful detention.
An officer identified as Inspector Bisi took him from Ikorodu to Panti and handed him over to one Babatunde in Panti D4, who collected N5,000 to open a file for the case.
Supol Bola also on Tuesday collected another N10,000 from the family to carryout coroner inquest and and Thursday collected another N7,000 for mobilisation to Ikorodu to investigate the scene of the death of the Okada rider.
BlackBox Nigeria gathered that efforts to secure Ejioye’s release by family and friends proved abortive. Eventually, he died in police custody on May 7, following alleged severe torture by the officers in charge.
Narrating their client’s ordeal in a statement, counsel to the deceased, Yakubu Eleto Chambers, said the family and friends had requested for his administrative bail few days before he died untimely.
“The police asked them to bring the sum of N100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira) which they couldn’t provide. They told the police officer that they had #28,000 (Twenty Eight Thousand Naira) which they denied releasing to him. Eventually, when the family was able to see him where he had been subjected to torture by inmates and was soaked with bruises and bloodstains,” the statement said.
Their pleas fell to deaf ears as the officer in charge identified as Inspector Bola of D4 still denied the administrative bail on the night of May 6, despite Ejioye’s deteriorating health condition — leading to his death the following day.
Though, after the death of Ejioye, N22,000 was returned by the Police to the family being the total amount spent in panti towards his release.
Meanwhile, the lawyers said after a background check to unravel the truth of the matter, it learnt that on April 30, 2021, there was a clash between some Okada riders and some community members which led to shootings and the killings of one of the Okada riders.
The riot occurred close to Ojubode — in Ikorodu — where youths of the community used as relaxation spot. The Police invaded the place, perhaps hoping to find the culprits. Upon sighting them, the youths ran for their dear lives. The Police thereafter arrested the late Omolola Ejioye and he was denied food for three days.
The statement said: “Having seen clearly that our client died unprecedentedly in the hands of the police, we are hereby requesting an autopsy report on the cause of the death of our client.
“We are also requesting that police release the corpse to the family for befitting burial for our clients.”
They added that while waiting, they expect a press release from the office of the Police Public Relations Officer for the Lagos State Police Command on the cause of death of Mr. Omolola Ejioye.
