Lawyer gives Police IG 7-day ultimatum over harrassment of 2 women

Barrister Dele Igbinedion, a Benin based lawyer, has given the Inspector General of Police (IG) a seven days ultimatum to address the complaints of two women against some police officers attached to the Oleh Police Station in Delta State, who they alleged brutalized them and in the process attempted to kill them.

According to the victims, Miss Erowo Ekere and Miss Joy Ekere, there problem with the police officers started on the 27th of December, 2016 when one Egbaoghene Oke came to their farm and negotiated for 14 birds (at N3000 each) which he wanted to buy. Later, he reportedly made a phone call whereby the person he wanted to buy the birds for claimed to have bought elsewhere.

But around 4am the next morning Miss Erowo heard a noise which on peeping through her keyhole she saw Egbaoghene, who came to make enquiries earlier, holding two birds and running away with them. She gave him a hot pursuit but he bolted away. But being an acquaintance she went to his house to make enquiries about his whereabouts whereby his mother said he did not sleep at home that night.

Erowo was able to get his phone number and when she got back home and did a check she discovered that the 14 birds Egbaoghene had come earlier to enquire about were missing. She tried to reach him on phone but his phone was out of reach.

Surprisingly, the next morning (28th December, 2016) Egbaoghene brought the police to arrest her and she had to pay N5000 for bail to regain her freedom. Thereafter, in line with the police order she made several calls at the station but Egbaoghene never showed up. Thus the Investigating Police Officer (IPO), CPL Grace Joseph, advised Erowo to stop coming until she is called. However, on the day the police called, Erowo was out of reach.

On the next day when she went to the police station with 5 months old Melody, daughter of her sister, Joy, both were allegedly detained. By 9pm when information got to Joy and she went to the station to confirm it, DSP Leonard Ofordile ordered that she too be detained.

As the argument was going on, W/Sgt. Edith Agholor, who was not on duty that day came in and brought out a matchet with which she inflicted bodily injury to Erowo who was holding Melody in her arms. Thereafter, the victims were allegedly detained for four days.

The matter was eventually brought to the attention of the Assistant Inspector General of Police Zone 5, Benin. In a telephone chat the Zonal PPRO, DSP Emeka Iheanacho confirmed that the report is at their desk.

“We are abreast of the situation. It is still under investigation, the complainants have stated their case while the policemen and women mentioned in the allegation have denied it.

“There is no reason for us to shield anybody. At the appropriate time we will come out with our verdict,” Iheanacho stated.

Meanwhile, Dele Igbinedion in a chat said: ‘I am so disappointed that this matter was reported to the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Zone 5 since February. No disciplinary action was taken against these four police officers Edith Agholor (a woman police sergeant), who can use a matchet on a civilian. That woman is a killer. She was not even on duty on that day.

“She came on her own volition to the police station and she joined her colleagues to beat the victims and lock them up. Because they think they have the power. We are giving the Inspector General of Police (IG) seven days to institute disciplinary action against these four police officers – W/Sgt. Edith Agholor, CPL Emeka Okorie, DSP Leonard Ofordile and W/CPL Grace Joseph – all attached to the Oleh Police Station in Delta State.

“If after seven days no sufficient, reasonable, commensurate disciplinary action has been instituted against these people we’ll immediately sue the police to court. We also expect that within the seven days the IG will pay these two women who have been brutalized and the five months old baby a compensation package of N100million for the brutalization they have undergone; for the breach of their fundamental rights and for the unlawful detention that they have undergone.

“If the Inspector General of Police ignores this our humble but very firm and vehement request we’ll institute action against the police authority in court. This sort of impunity by people in uniform cannot be allowed to continue. You cannot use your police uniform to harass people collect money from them and then detain them after using cutlass.”