Barely four months after a 27-year-old Chibuike Edeh, a staff of Protea Hotel was allegedly killed in controversial circumstances over an alleged missing N48,000, another victim, Benson Obode, a 27-year-old car dealer whose corpse was found deposited at the Edo State Central Hospital has sparked off a protest in Benin City. Late Benson was alleged to have been tortured to death while in police custody.
The discovery of the body of the late Benson Obode, a 27-year-old car dealer at the mortuary of the Central Hospital in Benin who had been in the custody of the men of the Nigeria Police, again brought to mind questions of cases of alleged extra-judicial killing by security personnel across the country.
The late Benson, according to family members, was a humble young businessman whose source of livelihood was derived from profits he earned from his car business which he used to assist his aged mother with in Benin City. But unknown to the mother and other family members, May 21, 2015 would be the last day they would see their breadwinner. He was arrested by a team of armed policemen from Lagos command accompanied with some officer from the Edo State Police Command.
The elder sister to the late Benson, Mrs Osawaru Izeyi, said Benson who had spent the night in her place the previous night had helped her to sweep the compound and then left for his apartment but just few minutes after, she was called that her younger brother was in trouble.
A call for which she quickly left what she was doing and dashed to the scene only to be confronted with the sight of her brother being held down by neighbours and the landlord who said the Police had come for him for an undisclosed crime.
Eventually, the Police who claimed they came from Lagos, took her brother away to the state police command headquarters. Two days later, they were told he has been taken to Abuja. Later again, they were told that he has been taken to Lagos. Till date, nothing was known about Benson.
She said the arrest of Benson was the beginning of a long search for her brother in all the police commands and formations where she was told to go for the search. This, according to Mrs Osawaru, heightened her suspicion that some sinister things must have happened to her brother.
Narrating her ordeal before newsmen in Benin City, Izeyi who broke down in tears intermittently said, a legal practitioner in Lagos had written the police but no response had been received from the police authority about her younger brother’s whereabouts and neither had he been charged to any court for any criminal offence before information reached them that the body of Benson was located at the Central Hospital mortuary in Benin, stone cold.
She said that her aged mother who stays with her since they lost their father few years ago has become hypertensive, always asking for her son.
“Yesterday, she just told me to take her to Lagos to where I don’t know. Anytime she hears me on phone, she will run to hear if there is any news about Benson.”
Her fears, she said, has increased because one of the policemen confronted her for bringing a lawyer to the station because of her brother.
She said her brother was a responsible person. “He (Benson) passed the night in my house and in the morning, he swept the compound and left to his rented apartment. I was later called on phone that people were holding him and when I got there, I saw his landlord and other people holding him down. I asked what happened and he said he doesn’t know but that they said the police came to arrest him but that he couldn’t tell what offence he had committed. Not quite long after, the policemen came back in a Toyota Highlander. They wore earrings and dreadlocks. If not for the police colour on their rifles, I would have doubted if they were indeed real policemen. I asked them of what my brother had done, they said I didn’t have any right to ask them questions. I begged that they should tell me but they did not talk to me. One of them collected my phone. I had to go back home, dressed up and went back to the state command. We saw the policemen and tried to talk to them but they did not allow us to talk at all.
“We waited endlessly to see who could talk to us but nobody did. We went to see OC SARS here in Edo State but he did not attend to us too. They only told us later that he bought a stolen vehicle and that he was an armed robber; I was surprised. He stayed with me for a long time and he never took my money. If he didn’t have money, he always requested from me and I would give him. The policeman insisted that he is a thief and that they are ‘scorpion SARS’ from Lagos.
“The next day, May 22nd, we went back with a lawyer since nobody was listening to us so that they could talk to him and if possible, see my brother so that we could ask him some questions. But they did not allow the lawyer to talk to them. The lawyer waited and eventually, they said he was an armed robber but even then, they did not allow the lawyer to see him. He later told me “na lawyer you carry come, you go waka, you go tire.” I asked of what that could mean. The following day, May 23rd, when we got there, he said they had moved my brother to Abuja and we later called a lawyer in Abuja to help us search police stations there. He went there but could not see my brother. Later, the police told us again that they had taken him to Ikeja, Lagos. My uncle who is a policeman went there and searched several police stations but did not see him.”
She said Benson, used to sell cars. “He is 26. He goes to Cotonu; buys cars and sell them with little gains. Sometimes, people send cars from abroad and he helps them to market them. He has never been linked with any act of violence at all and he never told me he had any issue with anybody. They have been staying with me since our father died. Assuming he is a stubborn person, we won’t take it like this. I don’t know what to do again; we are tired. My mother is in my house and she is worried. Once she heard any phone call, she would jump up and come to me to ask, ‘What are they saying about my son?’ Only yesterday, she said I should take her to Lagos. I asked her, ‘To do what?’ She said I should just take her there. We are tired and confused,” she stated.
A copy of the family’s letter to the Commissioner of Police in Lagos State by Peter Ehijinwa of Peter Ehijinwa & Co, dated June 29, 2015, identified the team that travelled to Benin to arrest Benson as Corporal Adeleke Adedeji, Corporal Abenna John, Corporal Henry Shobowale and Corporal Oniyo Musa. “They arrived Benin on May 18, 2015 in a Toyota Highlander Jeep and arrested Benson Obode on May 21, 2015.
“Our client is in serious apprehension as to what happened to their son because they have not heard from him. The family has made frantic effort to see him in Lagos but were told that he is not there. We therefore pray you to go into this matter so that our client will know the situation of his case. Our client is eager to know the whereabouts of their son,” the letter read.
Protest Over Discovery of Corpse
Information however got to the family of the late Benson that his corpse had been at the Central Hospital, Benin. It was said to have been deposited by some policemen led by one Corporal Oniyon Musa some few weeks ago, a development which sparked off protest and outrage by family members including members of the civil society in the state.
They accused the police of extra-judicial killing and called on the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, to immediately unravel circumstances that led to the death of Benson.
The protesters who stormed the premises of the Edo State House of Assembly, Edo Government House and headquarters of Edo State Police Command, said they want an independent autopsy to ascertain the actual cause of Benson’s death.
An elder brother of Benson, Solomon, said the police was yet to inform the family of what happened to Benson since he was arrested, alleging that N200,000 cash, phones and ATM cards belonging to his late brother were still missing.
He said the brother’s body was deposited at the morgue as Benson Agu instead of Benson Obode.
According to him, “Until now, they have not told the family anything. They broke the news to journalists in Lagos and not the family. We don’t know what has happened to our brother. How could somebody you arrest be mobbed?
“We saw him at the morgue that he was killed by torture and was shot. His landlord who was also arrested said my brother was tied and hung on a tree while blocks were placed on his chest.
“We have informed our lawyers. They have written to the IGP and we are asking the police to produce our brother. They said the boy bought a stolen car but the complainant we do not know. How did he die? The police should tell the family what happened.”
Meanwhile, Edo Civil Society Organisation through its public relations officer, Comrade Osazee Edigin, said Nigerians deserve an explanation on the death of Benson. The organisation condemned the alleged extra-judicial killing and urged the authorities to bring the said officer(s) involved to justice.
(Leadership)
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