How father of three died in congested task force cell
*Family demands compensation, unbiased investigation
*Lawyer, friend alleges plot to attribute Covid-19 as cause of death
Joy Joseph, Lagos
The family of late David Akpan a laundry man who was unlawfully arrested, kept in a congested detention facility at the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Unit (Task Force), Oshodi, are demanding for compensation and an unbiased investigation into the circumstances that led to his death while in detention.
David, a father of three, was arrested alongside his wife, Blessing Akpan, at Census Close Estate gate, Babs Animashaun Street in Surulere, by Taskforce operatives, who were allegedly out to enforce Covid-19 curfew, around 11p.m. on Sunday, March 14.
The couple, it was learnt, were heading home after the days business, when the operatives embarked on a raid in the area, arresting them and several others.
Daily Times reports that the suspects numbering over 70, were arrested, squeezed into a waiting black maria, and whisked away to the Task Force office in Oshodi, around 3a.m. the next day.
David, who hails from Akwa-Ibom state had after his arrest, notified his friend, Mr. Akwenuke John, to come secure his bail and that of his wife, this is as he complained that he was detained in a black maria truck that had little or no air due to congestion.
Preliminary investigations by our correspondent revealed that attempts by John to secure the release of the duo, over 24hours after their arrest, proved abortive, as one Damisu Okhakwu, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) who heads the Liaison Unit at the Task-Force Office, insisted she had other suspects to attend to.
According to John, who spoke to Daily Times via a Telephone conversation, Okhakwu was begged to at least bring David out of the stuffy holding cell, following his complain of inability to breathe well, but the officer allegedly refused, asking John to come the next day. It was however too late as David died before help could come his way.
The distraught John, said: “David and his wife were locked up in one of the Task Force trucks popularly known as, ‘black Maria’, he managed to call me to notify me of their arrest and seek my assistance to secure their bail the following day. He bitterly complained about how the truck was overcrowded, stuffy, short of air, and how he was finding it very difficult to breath.
“On arrival at the Lagos State Task Force around 10.a.m on Monday March 15, with the help of a mutual friend, i approached the Head of Liaison Unit at the Task-Force Office, DSP Damisu Barbara Okhakwu, for the bail of David and his wife but the unit head who was busy profiling scores of people that had been arrested a couple of days before David, his wife and several others from the Surulere axis, instructed to come back on Tuesday, March, on the grounds that she and her team needed time to conclude the job at hand before commencing that of the people arrested the previous night.
“Based on David’s earlier complaint about the over congested Task Force Black Maria truck and the sight of conspicuously overcrowded detention cells, 1 pleaded with the police officers to bring David out for a brief chat especially because David had complained about breathing challenges while in the truck but the Inspector addressed as the CRO on duty categorically refused, saying that it would be a herculean task to reach the part of the cell where David was talk less of getting David to come out, thereby confirming the cell was overcrowded.
“All efforts and pleas to get David to the better ventilated counter area of the detention facility fell on deaf ears. By the time I retuned at about 10.a.m on Tuesday, March 16, as instructed by the Liaison Unit Head, I saw scores of people including David’s wife and a few familiar faces including his neighbor that had been arrested on Sunday night from the Surulere axis.
“After exchanging pleasantries with a couple of familiar faces, I was still trying to explain my purpose of visit to a neighbor when David’s wife rushed to tell me he had been reportedly rushed to the hospital as claimed by the police that had suddenly become very friendly and caring to her. As soon as she turned around to respond to a call from one of the female police officers, the few familiar faces told me that the person that Lady was referring to had died.
“They said that before the police responded to their calls that someone had fainted, it took over one and a half hours and that at the time he was being carried out of the cell, his body was already very stiff and that some police officers when started hitting him with hard objects with the hope of reviving him to no avail.”
John said the taskforce operatives did not show remorse for the negligence which resulted in the loss of a life, but instead, tried to hide the truth from the family, and mad it almost impossible to locate the remains of the deceased that was deposited at a morgue.
He claimed it took a the intervention of the family’s lawyer, Barrister Oladimeji Olaleye, who petitioned the Lagos State Government, the Attorney General of Lagos State, and the Lagos State Taskforce, to get operatives of the agency to lead the family to where the remains of deceased was deposited at Mainland Hospital Morgue.
He continued: “They were so sure that one of them told me that, if David wasn’t dead, he will never die again. They also mentioned that two other people fainted within the cell as a result of the congestion and negligence of the police even though suspects were calling for help.
When I asked the police about the where about of the deceased (David), they told me, he fainted and was rushed to the General Hospital Yaba and not Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) at Ikeja which was obviously nearer.
“As a result of the incident that had occurred, the deceased’s wife and practically all the people arrested from the Surulere axis were unconditionally released, a process supervised by the Task-Force chairman that had TANGO 1 inscribed on the back of his police uniform.
After their release, I took the deceased’s wife and two others in search of David at General Hospital Harvey Yaba but the hospital attendants said, they had no record of any such person and that no one was brought there by the Task Force on that day nor the recent past.
“I quickly called a mutual friend and asked for a few minutes to confirm David’s whereabouts from the Head of Liaison Unit, only for the mutual friend to call back shortly after, to break the unfortunate news of David’s death and that his body had been deposited at the Military hospital Yaba.
Considering the latest development, I deceived David’s wife that David was in the Military Hospital’s ICU and that Soldiers, wouldn’t allow us see David and that we were advised to check on him the next day at 10.a.m.
“The next morning, she called to notify me of her intention to set out which I systematically stalled till I succeeded in getting to speak with one of her relatives to whom I finally broke the sad news for the ease of consoling her.
Meanwhile, for the benefit of clearing all doubts and eliminating the fears that the Police took the deceased to the Military hospital morgue with the intention of denying the family access to the corpse and thereafter sweep the case under the carpet, I called a few highly placed military officials to help confirm if truly the corpse had been deposited at the Military Hospital morgue which the Military refuted.
“At this point, the family was alarmed and suspected foul play so they decided to engage the services of a legal practitioner who submitted a petition to the Lagos State Government (LASG), Attorney General of Lagos State and the LASG Task Force office, before visiting the Head of Liaison Unit at the Task Force office who reluctantly agreed to see the family of the deceased and insensitively said, ‘she doesn’t like seeing people when she’s about to eat because she’s very likely to lose her appetite’.
“We told her we discovered David’s remains was not at the Military Hospital Morgue contrary to the information emanating from her office, we wanted her to take us to wherever the remains of the deceased had been deposited by her subordinates whom we couldn’t identify.
At this point, she was left with no other choice than to arrange a team of her subordinates to take us to the Mainland Hospital morgue where we were made to part with N3, 000 and produce an affidavit of our relationship to the deceased before we were given an opportunity to identify the corpse.
“Surprisingly, the police team that took us to the morgue disappeared before our very eyes shortly after they spoke with the Unit head that also scolded the family friend for suggesting the police should pay the N3, 000 identification fee requested by the morgue attendant as a show of concern to the family.”
John further lamented that since the death of David, who was the breadwinner of his immediate and extended family, neither DSP Okhakwu, nor the Task Force management, has made effort to condole with the family of the deceased.
Rather, he alleged that Okhakwu has repeatedly tried to threaten and intimidate him because her name reflected on the petition addressed to the state government as the Head of the Liaison unit under whose watch and negligence David died.
“This sort of negligence basically sums up to lack of emotions and respect for human life which further reemphasizes why the public generally have issues trusting officers of the Nigeria Police Force.
While waiting for the Task Force to officially convey a heartfelt condolence with a clear intention to adequately compensate the family of the deceased,” he stated.
Although our correspondent gathered that the Lagos State Government has ordered that the matter be investigated by the Homicide Section of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), John said he feared their is an attempt to bury the matter as operatives investigating the matter are insisting on a Covid-19 test, saying if the result comes out positive, the mater will be closed.
” The matter is now being investigated at SCID, and they said an autopsy and a Covid-19 test will be done. The Covid-19 test has been done and one of the officer told me that if the result comes out positive, that will be the end of the matter.
“I fear their is a plot to cover up the matter with the Covid-19 test. If his covid-19 result comes out positive, then they should do contact tracing and if nobody else who was in the cell with him has rested positive or has died of Covid-19 in the last two months, then it cannot be Covid-19.
“ It also doesn’t make sense that they are enforcing a law and also contravening same law,” he maintained.
Lawyer to the family, Oladimeji Olaleye, also spoke on the development. He corroborated the fears of John, saying the police may be attempting to cover up the matter with the Covid-19 test.
He however made the demands of the family as follows: “The family should be reasonably compensated. The office of the Attorney General called to say I write to the Coroner requesting an inquiry into the cause of death. The Lagos State government also referred our petition to SCID.
“We were called and the family went there to writer their statement. What I see is that they are trying to push our case to Covid-19. He was hail and hearty, we even had witnesses that confirmed the detention facility was stuffy and lacked air.
“The family needs explanation as to what happened and why in their pursuit of enforcing Covid-19 protocol, they themselves are breaking the protocol. Secondly, a formal apology, saying what happened ought not to have happened.
Thirdly, compensation for the family. He left a wife, three children and a large family. All of them are devastated and they would lobe to see an end to this.”
Reacting to the allegations, spokesperson for the Task Force, Femi Moliki, debunked claims that Daivd died in detention, he however said the matter is being investigated under the supervision of the Lagos State Government.
Moliki said: “ Thee is a petition to the Lagos State Government and they are already working on it. Until when the findings of their investigation is out, I can’t say anything.
The fact is that it wasn’t a normal raid, it was the enforcement of curfew and they were close to a hotel where people were staying beyond the curfew.
“It was in that process that they were raided. The wife sells close to the hotel. It is also not true that the black maria was congested.
The wife was not their, it was his brother that was there and his brother confirmed the man was I’ll. He didn’t die in our custody.
“ I leanrt he slumped and he was moved to Ikeja General Hospital where he died. The family has written the Lagos State Government and investigation is on.”
Contacted for comment, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Olumiyiwa Adejobi, simply said he was not aware of the matter.
He told the correspondent to sent a message on her inquiry, which will be forwarded to the Task Force office, the message was sent, but as at press time, Adejobi was yet to respond.
