Afeez
Hanafi
When Princewill Jumbo, a
300-level student of Rivers State University of Science and Technology, and his
friends were returning to Port Harcourt from a burial in the Buguma area of the
state on Saturday, little did they know that they were going to spend the rest
of the weekend in police custody.
The friends are Iyoyo
Soberekon, Charles Benjamin, Julius Abazie and Franklin Ordu, who is said to be
a final year student of the institution.
PUNCH
Metro learnt
that the victims were arrested by the Anti-Cultism Squad of the state police
command at a park in Buguma, where they wanted to board a bus en route to their
residence in Port Harcourt around 5pm on that day.
It was
gathered that the chairman of a motorcycle riders’ association had called the
policemen on the telephone after an argument ensued between the victims and one
of the riders who conveyed them to the park.
The police team, numbering
about six, were said to have whisked away the five friends to their station on
the ground that they were cult members.
Princewill, who spoke on the
telephone with our correspondent on Tuesday, said the operatives undressed him
and his friends and beat them with sides of cutlasses.
It was learnt that the victims,
except Ordu who is still in custody as of the time of filing this report, were
released on Monday.
Princewill said, “Franklin
(Ordu) gave the rider N500 and requested N300 change, but the rider said he did
not have change. His co-riders volunteered to split it but he refused. He said
Franklin must find N200. That was how the argument started. As we were arguing,
a man, who called himself the park manager, wanted to slap Franklin. We
cautioned him and the next thing he did was to call the policemen on the
telephone that cult members were disturbing the community.
“The policemen removed our
clothes. We were left with only our boxers. They told us to lie on the floor
and they started flogging us with the sides of cutlasses. They beat us up as we
made our statements. When the beating persisted Franklin told them that he was
a cultist. They later took us to the Swift Operation Squad office in Port
Harcourt.
“Inside the cell, there is a
13-year-old boy, called Small.
He told us he was arrested a few weeks ago around his house in Abonima and that
his family members were not aware that he was in police custody. Others we met
there said they were just picked on the roads.”
Twenty two-year-old Princewill
said he was in pains, urging that the policemen, who assaulted them, should be
brought to book.
“I don’t know their names but I
can recognise them,” he added.
His father, Mr. Progress Jumbo,
said, he parted with N20,000 because the policemen threatened to implicate
Princewill.
He said, “The policemen asked
me to pay N20,000 or else they would send a letter to my son’s school that he
was a cult member. That was the threat they used to extort the money from me.
As a father, I had to succumb to their threat. Why should I allow my son to be
rusticated for no reason?”
Princewill’s sister, Mrs. Peace
Asoka, said, “The authorities need to know about this incident so that the
police can stop harassing innocent persons. The policemen involved in this
should be brought to justice. They collected N2,000 from me before I was
allowed to see my brother in the cell.”
Benjamin, one of the victims,
described the incident as “embarrassing”, and demanded Ordu’s release
“They kicked my face before
they used the cutlass on me. They did not behave like policemen,” he added.
The Rivers State Police
spokesperson, Mr. Nnamdi Omoni, urged the victims to come to his office for the
identification of the policemen involved in the alleged assault.
“As for Franklin (Ordu),
somebody has to stand as a surety for him before he can be released. The person
has to sign an undertaking that he will be of good behaviour henceforth,” he
added.
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