Panel Invites IRT Boss, Abba Kyari, Others Over Unlawful Detention, Inhuman Treatment
LAGOS DECEMBER 15TH (NEWSRANGERS)-The Independent Investigative Panel (IPP) probing rights violation by operatives of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and other units of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has ordered the police to produce the Commander of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Intelligence Response Team (IRT), Abba Kyari, a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), and Inspector Vincent Makinde.
The 11-man panel, led by Justice Suleiman Galadima (retd.), ordered that both police officers appear before over a case of alleged arbitrary arrest, detention and inhuman treatment of Raphael Tersoo and Moses Mfe.
Justice Galadima directed the head of the police legal team, James Idachaba, a DCP, to ensure that Abba Kyari and Inspector Makinde (who was the Investigating Police Officer (IPO, in the case) appear before the panel to make public presentation of everything that transpired in the course of arrest, investigation and how the victims were subsequently remanded at the Suleja Correctional Services.
The order followed a submission by Tersoo’s and Mfe’s lawyer, Mike Usahfa, who narrated how his clients were allegedly subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment by the police since 2019.
Usahfa told the panel that his clients were arrested on November 22, 2019, at new GRA in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, and that after spending a week at the Makurdi zonal command headquarters of the police, they were transferred to Abuja and have since been in detention.
He said since the arrest of his clients, they have not been arraigned before any court of law and that all attempts to secure their bail were rebuffed by inspector Makinde who insisted that the sum of N1million Naira must be paid before they could get bail.
Utasha said Mfe’s whereabouts still remained unknown.
The lawyer said he was reliably informed that his client was shot during his arrest and that he sustained injury and was not allowed to get medical care.
According to him, he was unsure if his client has not suffered extra-judicial killing.
Utasha urged the panel to order the immediate release of his clients and that the police be compelled to produce Mfe.
Idachaba, after Utasha’s presentation, told the panel that in all his years in practice, it was a rude shock for him to hear that suspects were remanded in prison by the police.
The case was adjourned till December 17, 2020, for further hearing.
The Nation
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Posted by News Rangers
on Dec 15 2020. Filed under National.
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