One Dauda Danladi, a 33-year-old businessperson in Bauchi, has died of torture in the Yelwa Division of the Nigerian Police Force Bauchi.
Mr. Dauda who was the breadwinner of his family was reportedly arrested by the combined patrol team of the police attached to the Yelwa Division and a vigilante group while running his routine business in front of his shop located in Yelwan Kagadama, an exurbia of Bauchi metropolis Thursday.
The combine patrol team reportedly took Mr. Dauda to the Yelwa Division where he was subjected to torture until he breathed his last.
An eyewitness told journalists that: “I was running my business when, abruptly, the police and some vigilantes came numbering more than 10 and began arresting people. The Divisional Police Officer got down from his vehicle and directed his men shouting: ‘Arrest him! Arrest him!!’
“That was the process they arrested the boys playing snooker, others who were chatting and the deceased who was standing in front of his shop.
“We kept pleading with them not to arrest him; we told them that he was our neighbour and we knew him to be someone of good character.”
She said that when nearby people enquired as to why Dauda was arrested, the police did not offer any explanation as to the reason for his oppression. Instead, they zoomed off with him.
On getting the news of the whereabouts and sad sudden demise of their brother Friday morning, the family members of late Dauda mobilised in numbers to the Yelwa Police Division demanding for an explanation as to the circumstances surrounding his death; the police asked them to stay away from the Division and wait for the DPO to address them.
The eyewitness further explained that when she returned to the Division barely three hours after the first visit, she met the widow of the deceased crying copiously and “when I asked her what happened, she told me that her husband was dead.”
In its response, the Bauchi State Police Command in a press statement signed by its Public Relations Officer Ahmad Muhammed Wakil denied arresting Dauda saying that the police took him to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital after receiving a distress call that the deceased was gasping for breath from what the police suspected to be an asthma attack for medical attention.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Command reiterates that the victim did not die in Police custody. The Commissioner of Police, CP Abiodun Sylvester Alabi has ordered for a discreet investigation including autopsy to ascertain the actual circumstances surrounding the incident after which the outcome shall be made public,” according to the statement.
