IGP Orders Investigation Into Detention, Torture of Nigerian Man for Four Years

The Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has ordered investigation into the case of a Nigerian man who was wrongfully tortured and detained for four years by police operatives in Nasarawa State.

Force spokesperson, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, disclosed this in a post on his X handle (formerly known as Twitter) on Friday.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the victim, Solomon Bawa, was arrested by some operatives who threw him into prison in 2019 and left him deformed while torturing him on the suspicion that he was a crime suspect.

Mr Bawa, who was mistaken for Bawa Gombe, a wanted crime suspect, only got released in August this year, four years after being arrested in Masaka, a community in Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.

The police operatives did not charge him to court after his arrest, but continued to torture and detain him.

The victim narrated how another police operative, identified as Ado Bature, an inspector, advised him to accept that he was the wanted crime suspect, to avoid the prospect of being tortured to death by Usman Angbashi, also an inspector.

The incident went viral after the victim narrated his harrowing experiences when he appeared on Berekete Family, a popular human rights broadcast station in Nigeria.

A video clip showing the man narrating the incident was uploaded on the station’s YouTube page on 27 October.

Investigation by the Police

Mr Adejobi, an assistant commissioner of police, said the IGP has “personally” waded into the matter.

“The IGP eventually directed a team of investigators at the Force Headquarters to investigate and report as soon as possible,” he wrote on the microblogging platform.

The Force spokesperson uploaded photographs showing some police officers and the victim meeting with the IGP.

In a fresh update hours later, Mr Adejobi said, after listening to the officers and the victim, the IGP decided to allow another (police) team to investigate the matter.

“Though the case is in court, we need to unravel certain things in the matter. It’s a complex one,” he said in another post on his X handle.