News Obiaks News

A young man, Hassan Mukhtari, died in police custody last week after he was tortured by police officers who accused him of ‘defying their order’, his family members have said.
        Mr Mukhtari, who was 22 years old, presently lies dead in the mortuary at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) in the Borno State capital. His parents insist his corpse will not be buried until they are told how their son died in a police cell hours after he was arrested. Borno police commissioner, Mohammed Aliyu, confirmed knowledge of the development. He said he has “set up an investigative committee to unravel why the boy died in custody. The commissioner also said two policemen linked to the death have been arrested and detained pending the outcome of the police investigation.
        Fatima Samaila, a sister to the victim, told PREMIUM TIMES that she was also arrested and detained by the police on the night her brother was beaten and tortured” for several hours “until he died”. According to Fatima, they were arrested from their house in Simari Extension on Friday evening by some policemen who came on a tricycle and took them to the Grange divisional police headquarters. She said they were not told what their offence was. She, however, said there was earlier verbal altercation her brother had with two policemen, posted on guard duty in their area, “over a stray goat that encroached on the deceased’s farmland. My brother was handcuffed and pushed into one of the two Keke-Napeps (tricycles) and when I stepped out to ask them why he was being arrested, one of the policemen ordered I should also be arrested,” she said. Fatima said they were both taken to Gwange police station where the policemen immediately pounced on her younger brother “and began to slap and hit him on his face and head. They then dragged him somewhere inside the police station where I believe he was tortured. I didn’t see my brother until about 8.30 p.m. when they brought him back. Immediately I saw my brother, I knew he was badly tortured. I ran to him in tears, asking what happened but my brother could not utter even a word. He kept shedding tears and shaking his head. As if that was not enough, one of them brought out a thick twin electric cable and began to whip him. My brother fell down and I began to scream begging them to stop that the torture was getting out of hand. They didn’t stop. She said all her pleas fell on deaf ears, adding that one of the policemen insulted her by calling them “miserable children of peasants”, while threatening that “next time your brother cross paths with me he would run far for his dear life. Fatima said she was later locked up as well. While I was being dragged away, I begged them to kindly take my brother who was lying almost lifeless on the floor to the hospital. But no one paid attention to me. She said she was locked up in a cell until the next morning when the policemen brought her out and began to interrogate her. Fatima said she noticed that the policemen were less hostile in the morning, perhaps because they did not want to tell her, her brother had died in the night and the police had rushed him to the hospital where he was confirmed dead.