Pascal Arogorn Ibe
A retired Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Mamman Danladi, on Monday, urged the independent panel investigating violations of rights by defunct SARS and other police units set up by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to order the police to compensate his family for the alleged extra-judicial killing of his nephew, Kennedy Yusuf.
The retired police officer stated this at the hearing of the petition he filed before the panel, adding that though the family was handicapped, it wanted perpetrators of his nephew’s murder brought to justice.
Testifying before the panel, Danladi said the late Yusuf, a son of his brother, was on January 10, 2007 arrested by policemen from the Jikwoyi police station on the allegation of stealing two bags of cement.
According to him, the 25-year-old student of Plateau State Polytechnic, Barkin Ladi, was hale and hearty as of the time he was arrested.
He alleged that the deceased was severely beaten by five policemen while he was being interrogated and was later locked up in a cell, adding that the torture continued on January 11, 2007 till the deceased lost consciousness.
The retired police officer informed that he got the information from Kennedy’s friends: Felix Dabo and Peter Orji who were present when he was subjected to cruel and inhumane degrading treatment by the policemen.
Danladi told the Justice Suleiman Galadima-led panel that his nephew was left in an unconscious state for hours before he was taken to Pogba Clinic and Maternity at Jikwoyi, “where he was dumped without medical attention because the police refuse to deposit money for the commencement of treatment.”
Danladi stated that it was the late Yusuf’s friend, Peter Orji, who called the father, Yusuf Danladi, in Kwoi in Kaduna State, to inform him that his son was sick and was admitted to the clinic where he was left by the police unattended.
He informed that his brother came to Abuja from Kwoi and went straight to the hospital where he deposited the sum of N3,000 for treatment, adding that before anything could be done, his nephew died the same day.
While being cross-examined, the retired police officer said though he did not witness event leading to the death of his nephew, he witnessed the autopsy performed at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH), Gwagwalada.
He told the panel that the law did not allow torture of suspects by police.
Danladi informed that he did not know if the Inspector-General of Police investigated the petition he wrote to the police boss in 2007.
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