- Female Suspects Accuse Policemen Of Sexual Harassment
Yusuf Oketola
TWO suspects, Joy Esu Ogunmba and Olawoyin Aina have accused some policemen attached to the Anti-Kidnapping Unit and Intelligence Department of the Nigeria Police Force, Osun Command, of sexual assault.
Ogunmba, who was arrested for alleged kidnapping, said she was sexually exploited while in custody of the Police by an officer simply known as Taofeek, before she was arraigned in court and remanded in Ilesa Correctional Centre.
According to Ogunmba, Taofeek slept with her twice in one office at the State Criminal Investigations Department, Osogbo, on the promise that he would assist in securing her release.
Ogunmba made the allegation while speaking during a visit of a Non-Governmental Organisation, Monsurat Ajoke Foundation to female inmates at the Ilesa Correctional Centre, last week Tuesday.
OSUN DEFENDER reporter, who was part of the visitation team, noted that all the female inmates were happy to receive members of the NGO.
Ogunmba said: “I was arrested for kidnapping on February 23, 2018 and I have been in remand since March 28, 2018. After two days of my arrest at the state CID in Osogbo, one Police officer at the anti-kidnapping unit of the Osun Police, named Taofeeq brought me out of the cell around 2:30am. He said I should come and write my statement.
“He slapped me when I was coming out of the cell. I told him I didn’t know how to write, so, I narrated everything to him. During the narration, he fondled my breasts and I resisted. He told me to cooperate but I also told him to stop.
“He said he wanted to help me and before doing that, he would have sex with me. What he told me then was that he would come to the prison alongside my belongings and bail me out. Officer Taofeeq told me not to be afraid, that he would not disappoint me.
“I later accepted for him and he had sex with me. He had sex with me at two different times during my stay at the state CID, because I spent one month and a week there.
“I was arraigned in court on March 28, 2018 and I have never set my eye on officer Taofeek since then. Though I don’t know his rank, but his name is Taofeeq from anti-kidnapping unit of the Police.”
Making similar allegation, a 25-year-old armed robbery suspect, Mrs. Aina Olawoyin, said she was sexually harassed by a policeman during her detention period at the SCID, Osogbo.
According to her, a Police officer, simply known as Dare, who was part of the team that arrested her demanded for sex from her as condition to help her out of the case.
She said: “On August 8, 2018, the Police raided our house in Ede and arrested my husband, two kids and I. We were detained at the State CID in Osogbo. Later, the two kids and my husband were admitted to bail with the aid of my mother in-law having paid a sum of N200,000. I was left behind in the cell.
“On the night of our arrest, one tall and fair Police officer named Dare from the Intelligence Department came to my cell around 12am. He was part of the officers that came to arrest me. He brought me out to take my statement in which they have done earlier. He said he was willing and ready to secure my bail on the condition that I should agree to have sex with him. I told him I could not, because he should know that my husband was also in the cell.
“There was another Police officer they called Babalawo; he usually come into the cell through the window. He would demand from all female suspects in the cell that we should play with him. He would fondle our breast and also finger our private parts, or take us out one after the other to perpetrate the evil act. We were about five females in the cell then.
“I was later arraigned in court and remanded in correctional centre on November 19, 2018. We are now waiting for final judgement coming up by October 25, 2021 at Ede High Court.
Reacting to the allegations, the Police Public Relations Officer, Osun Command, Mrs. Yemisi Opalola, said she was not aware of the case.
Opalola promised that the police authority will investigate the allegations of the suspects and take neccessary step on it.
