FEATURE: Police Told Me I Would Pay To Get My Son’s Corpse Before His Death Was Announced

 

• The Story Of A Mother Whose Only Child Was Allegedly Tortured To Death By Police
• Policemen Took His Foodstuffs After Nothing Incriminating Was Found – Relatives

Ismaeel Uthman

THE dust raised by the reported death of a 24-year-old Olufemi Oriyomi, who died in police detention in Osogbo, State of Osun, is far from settling.

Oriyomi died eight days after he was arrested and detained by some officers of CP Surveillance, a special team of police under the direct supervision of the Commissioner of Police in the state.

The police claimed that Oriyomi and two others, Kehinde Olayade (25) and Raimi Sheriff (21) were suspected ritualists who were arrested on April 7, 2022 at Safejo area, along Osogbo/OAU Ife Campus road, Ile-Ife, for alleged ritual killings. 

According to a statement by the Police Public Relations Officer, Yemisi Opalola, on Friday, April 15, the police found human heart in the custody of the suspects when they were apprehended after been given ‘a hot chase’ by the police.

According to the PPRO, Oriyomi developed illness while in police custody and died at an undisclosed hospital where he was taken to. 

But the mother of the deceased, Mrs. Yemisi Adesina, disagreed with the police, claiming that police killed her only son, Femi. 

She punctured the police claims, saying all what the police said on the arrest and death of her son was far from the truth. 

According to her, the allegation that he was a suspected ritualist was a cover up story to incriminate him after his death and shielded the concerned policemen from justice. 

OSUN DEFENDER had earlier established a false claim from the statement of the police on where Femi and his friends were arrested. 

Contrary to the claim of the police that the suspects were chased and arrested at Safejo area, along Osogbo/OAU Ife Campus road, Ile-Ife, investigations by OSUN DEFENDER revealed that the suspects were raided at their residence located behind Olubuse Memorial Grammar School, Ogooluwa community, Ile-Ife on Thursday, April 7. They were arrested around 4am.

The policemen scaled the fence to gain entry into the apartment of the suspects, who were suspected to be internet fraudsters, notoriously know as Yahoo-Yahoo boys.

Investigations by the medium revealed that an informant had told the police that Kehinde Olayade and Raimi Sheriff had ‘cash out’ (gotten money from cyber fraud), which prompted the police to act swiftly with the intention to extort them. 

Femi, the deceased was not living in the same house with Olayade and Sherif, but decided to sleep over in their house when it was late on the day they were arrested. The trio had gone to watch the first leg of Chelsea vs Real Madrid match which ended around 10pm that day. 

Speaking with the medium in an emotion laden voice, the mother of the deceased, Mrs. Yemisi Adesina, asked the Inspector General of Police to probe the circumstances surrounding the death of his son, saying the police in the state of Osun are guilty of extrajudicial killing.

Adesina said the police tortured her son to death for committing no offence, saying that he was neither a ritualist, nor an internet fraudster. 

She said all effort to secure the bail of the suspects proved abortive as the policemen insisted on collecting a sum of N2m before they could be released. 

According to Adesina, a policeman called her on phone on April 14, 2022 (the seventh day of Femi’s detention) and told her that she would pay to get the corpse of her son. 

She said: “Femi visited me on Wednesday and we talked. The following day, he called his younger sister to prepare food for him, telling her he would come to eat after watching a football match that evening.

“It was late before the football match ended and his friends told him to go with them to sleep over in their house. I was told he was awake around 4am, playing game when the police scaled the fence and raided the house. According to some other people in the house, nothing incriminating was found on them and inside the house. The only thing the police took in the house was an herb for hernia inside a gin.  

“I was informed of Femi arrest around 4pm by my dad. I was disturbed on hearing that he was arrested by the police because he was a gentle boy. He would not involve in any bad thing. He had never engaged in quarrel or fight with anybody; and he had never been arrested by the police. I rushed to my dad’s place where Femi was living and my people encouraged me to be strong, saying he would be released. 

“After the arrest, I was told the same policemen came to check Femi’s house at evening on same day. They searched his room but found nothing. Surprisingly, the police took away the foodstuffs (Rice and Beans) in his room. My dad asked what their offence was and the policemen said they found human heart in their custody. Femi and his friends instantly denied that before the policemen hurriedly took them away. 

“On the seventh day of his arrest and detention, a police officer called me on phone and asked if I am a responsible mother, and I told him yes. I told him I had been trying to see my son but could not because I did not know where he was being detained. The policeman told me Femi was sick, I was perplexed but he told me to be praying that nothing bad would happen to him, but he did not disclose where he was being detained. He just told me to come to Osogbo. Around 6:00pm that same day, the police officer called me again and gave the phone to Femi, I spoke with him and he told me he was getting better; the phone was taken away from him after that. I called back and Femi said he was getting better. I asked the policeman where my son was being detained but he did not disclose the place to me. He only told me I should come to Osogbo. 

“The following day, I went to meet a retired police officer in our area and he help to call one policeman known as coach. It was coach that told me that Femi and his friends were being detained at a police station in Obelawo, Osogbo. The officer told me not to worry that Femi and his friends would be bailed on that day. Around 6:30pm, I received a call from a police officer and as soon as I picked the call, he said: “you will have to pay before the corpse of your son will be released to you”. I rebuked that immediately and he cut off the call.  I called several times but he didn’t pick up again. On Friday, the ninth day, a policeman called and told me my son is dead. That is how I lost my son, a gentle and harmless Femi. Femi was a cool and calm boy. 

“His dad and I went to the police station in Obelawo and we asked for him to be bailed. The policemen were just blabbering, saying they did not torture him to death. My husband asked the policemen what his offence was but they could not say anything. We engaged them but they refused to talk to us again. And they did not allow us to see his corpse. Femi was my only child. He is not a stubborn boy. Police killed my only child.

“Femi’s friends told me that the police took Femi out of the cell in the morning and returned him by evening for some days. They said Femi did not disclose what the police did to him when he was taken out. According to his friends, the police took him out on Thursday and did not return him to the cell. The police have threatened his friends not to talk to anybody again. My son was tortured to death.”

Mr. Oladapo Awoyele, a relative of Femi, told OSUN DEFENDER that he was with the deceased at the viewing centre where they watched the football match on April 6. 

Awoyele said: “We do watch ball together and, on that day, we went to watch Chelsea vs Real Madrid. After the match, around 9:50pm, his friends told him to sleep over in their house and he bid me goodbye. He went with them on that day because his friends have Play Station 2 and he was eager to go with them to play. One of his friends is a tailor while the other is into plumbing work. 

“The following morning, we heard they have been arrested and we started looking for them. But we did not know where they were. Around 5pm, we were at a place where some of us, the youths in this area gather to play; then we saw a tainted hummer bus approaching us. The bus parked and policemen on jacket came down from it. They brought out Femi with his friends handcuffed and we asked the police what they do. Initially, the police didn’t say anything but later, they told us they arrested them with human heart. Femi and his friends were laughing, saying it was a lie. One of the policemen slapped them and told them to shut up. 

“They searched Femi’s room but nothing incriminating was found. They only carried his foodstuffs and left with the boys after that. We tried to secure their bail but we couldn’t until Femi died in their custody. 

The police claimed that they chased the boys from OAU to Safejo area before they were arrested. That is a big lie. They were arrested in their house around 5:00am. The other boys who were later released told us that they tortured them till Femi died.”

Calling on the Federal Government, Inspector General of Police, human rights activists and other well-meaning Nigerians to help her get justice on the death of her only child, the deceased mother said the policemen collected another sum of N580, 000 from the relatives of Femi’s friends before they were released on bail. 

Femi’s corpse was still deposited at a mortuary at the State Government Specialist Hospital, Asubiaro, Osogbo as at the time of filling this report.