A complainant at the IIP-SARS, Mrs Bolanle Ogaga on Thursday told the panel how Edwin Patrick and two other policemen of the IGP-IRT Abuja locked her in a police cell for daring to ask the whereabouts of her husband, Ogaga Ohore who she alleged was arrested by the police since 12th of January, 2020.
The two other policemen listed in the petition as respondents are Mr Jonathan and Mr Aminu (all of IGP IRT).
Led in his testimony by her counsel, Wisdom Elum, the visibly distressed woman informed the 11-Member panel chaired by Justice Suleiman Galadima (rtd) that she only received a phone call from a young man informing her that the police have arrested her husband in Abuja.
According to her, she was in Lagos when she received the call in which she was also informed that her husband was arrested at Abacha road, Mararaba, Nasarawa state.
She said that when she came into Abuja in company of her children, she decided to visit a nearby police station to make enquiries concerning her husband.
It was in the process of making the enquiries that she was told that her husband case was a “popular” matter in the area and she should go to police IRT office at Abattoir, Abuja to enquire about her husband.
On getting to the IRT office in the said area, the complainant noted that that she was asked to go away from the premises as according to her the police were asking how she could be courageous enough to ask about her husband.
“I was pushed by the police and I hit my head at the gate and fell down and later found myself in a dark room; when I regained consciousness I heard my children crying outside”, she lamented before the panel
She stated that the police later released her from the cell and demanded the sum of N500,000 from her possible to bail her husband and that she told them that she did not have such amount.
Along the line, she alleged that Edwin Patrick collected the sum of N15,000 in cash from her and also demanded more money.
It was at that point that she started making phone calls for people to help her and raise some money in order for her to bail her husband from police custody, she added.
In the end, she said that the sum of N35,000 was transferred to her Fidelity bank account, from where Edwin Patrick and his team allegedly used her ATM card to withdrew the whole amount in instalments of N15,000, N15,000 and N5,000 respectively on the same day being 11th of March, 2020.
She also told the panel that Patrick while in his office on the 9th of March, 2020 told her that her husband has died and therefore did not know why she was still coming to the police station.
The matter was adjourned till 3rd of March 2021 for possible cross examination by the police.
