Chukwudi Akasike, Port Harcourt
An artisan, Lucky Joseph, who was tortured by some operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Rivers State Police Command, says he could no longer stand.
As of the time our correspondent spoke with him on Friday, the 38-year-old said he had taken ill and had been unable to stand since morning, given the severity of the machete cuts inflicted on him by the policemen.
“Since morning, I have not been able to stand up. I have been feeling so much pain all over my body and I have been taking tetanus injection because of the knife (cutlass) they used on me,” he said in a telephone interview.
A video showing three SARS operatives beating up the mechanic had gone viral on the Internet last Thursday. The incident was said to have taken place on a street close to the University of Port Harcourt.
While one slammed him repeatedly with a cutlass, another was seen opening a tear gas canister in his face, while the third official held him.
Also, the victim’s trousers were pulled down, exposing his private parts. The assault went on until two men intervened towards the end of the one minute video.
Joseph had told The PUNCH that some residents contributed N30,000 which they paid the SARS operatives before he was released.
While the footage of the incident had gone viral, the police insisted that the victim must make a formal complaint on what transpired.
Joseph also told our correspondent on the telephone that though he had lodged a complaint on the incident to the police, he had yet to receive any response.
Meanwhile, a rights group, the International Society for Social Justice and Human Rights, has called on the Commander, Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Rivers State, Mr. Akin Fakorede, to fish out the policemen who brutalised and stripped Joseph naked.
The group’s Chancellor, Jackson Omenazu, said the police would be sending a wrong signal to the public if they continued to sweep issues bordering on human rights abuse under the carpet.
He said, “I think the SARS commander owes the society the obligation of fishing out the errant police officers so that they will be properly identified and punished for misconduct.
“In the police ordinance and all those things embedded in it, there are conducts a police officer will put up and he will be punished. So, hiding the police officers means that they are all collaborators.
“Why he (Fakorede) is a superior officer is to caution the erring younger officers. You don’t need to treat your fellow citizens as if they are animals. You are sending the wrong signals that you are not well trained and that you are not civilised police officers.
“No matter what happens, you don’t strip a mature person or even a kid in public no matter the offence. There are civil ways to arrest a citizen if he has committed an offence. Operatives of the Nigerian Police Force must learn how to respect the rights of fellow citizens, because without Nigerians, their jobs would be meaningless.”
Omenazu, however, expressed regret that the police were not concerned about fishing out the culprits despite the fact that the incident had been reported to them.
He also recalled how a taxi driver was killed by a policeman at Rumuokoro area of the state, adding that till date, the Rivers State Police Command had not produced the trigger-happy policeman who shot the taxi driver.
When contacted, the Rivers State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Nnamdi Omoni, advised the victim to visit the command, saying the matter would be taken up from there.
Omoni said, “Much as I am not holding brief for anybody, let him (Joseph) come and tell us who the policemen involved in the matter are.”
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